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Cascade Renewable Transmission project introduced to FSEC; applicants outline 100-mile underwater line and environmental safeguards
Summary
Applicants for the Cascade Renewable Transmission Project told the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council the plan would place roughly 80 miles of a ~100-mile high-voltage line in the Columbia River, carry about 1,100 MW, use HDD and hydroplow installation methods, and undergo multi-agency permitting including Army Corps review; council members and members of the public pressed the team on materials, risk, thermal effects and contamination.
Chris Hocker, a member of the Cascade Renewable Transmission (CRT) project team, presented the project Thursday night to the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, describing “about a 100 mile high voltage transmission line, of which a little more than 80 miles will be under the bed of the Columbia River” and about 19 miles buried on land. He said the system would transmit roughly “1,100 megawatts of energy.”
The project team described technical approaches intended to limit impacts. Hocker said river entry and exit would use horizontal directional drilling (HDD) so the cable is brought underground rather than by open trench. The marine installation would employ a barge and a jet or hydro plow to form a narrow (about 2-foot-wide) trench in sediment, lay the cable bundle, and allow most sediment to resettle. He said typical burial depth would be “10 to 15 feet below the sediment.”
The presentation placed…
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