Updated: 4:03 p.m. 2/11/19
Work is underway to fix a transmission power line that regularly fails near Halibut Cove and Peterson Bay, but Homer Electric Association said customers all over the Kenai Peninsula will likely share the cost of the project.
HEA Director of Member Relations Bruce Shelly said the utility co-op has known for some time that its power line near Stonehocker Creek on the south side of Kachemak Bay is prone to flooding. But in 2017, the area experienced a significant flood event.
“It actually breached and followed our transmission line right away and took out some poles,” Shelly explained. “We ended up with an outage that lasted 10 plus days that affected our Halibut Cove, Peterson Bay members over there.”
The state and the Army Corps of Engineers gave HEA the go-ahead to install a corrugated steel wall supported by pilings near the creek. Shelly said HEA began work on the project last week to prevent future flood events from downing poles near the creek.
“We have equipment on the ground hoping to divert that water back into the Stonehocker,” he said. “With that though, the price tag is $2.5 million, somewhere there in cost. So that $2.5 million will be spread out across all of us to support that.”
Shelly said HEA customers would pay for the project through their bills over the next 30 years, but he did say HEA is exploring other ways to mitigate the cost of the work, which is set to wrap up by March.
It asked the borough back in January if the 2017 flood event could be declared a disaster in an effort to leverage federal funding, but Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce told Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly members last week that the issue did not meet minimum requirements. Pierce did say that the borough wrote a letter in support of HEA seeking funding support from the state.
However, Shelly said that HEA does not expect to receive state dollars due to the state’s current financial problems.
