13-05-2025
Spokane County to consider Avista plan to bury power lines to reduce wildfire risks in 3 Spokane County urban wildlands
May 12—Fewer power lines soon will be breaking up the views from one of Spokane County's largest recreation areas, if Spokane County commissioners grant an easement to the region's largest power utility.
The governing board of Spokane County will vote Tuesday afternoon on granting a 10-foot-wide easement to Avista Utilities along the northern face of Mica Mountain, which would allow the company to convert its existing overhead lines in the area underground. Work would begin in mid-July, according to Avista spokesman David Vowels.
Vowels said the project is part of Avista's larger efforts to reduce the risk of wildfires in urban wildland areas. The utility plans to convert similar overhead networks into underground systems in the unincorporated community of Dartford in northern Spokane County, as well as in the Moran Prairie neighborhood, atop Spokane's South Hill.
"To better serve our customers and communities and reduce wildfire risk, Avista has begun to strategically move sections of overhead power lines underground," the project's web page reads. "We're focusing our efforts in areas that have the highest wildfire ignition risk."
All areas are scheduled to be finished by the end of the summer, and Vowels said customers would be notified of any expected outages as a result of the work.
Power equipment has been linked to several devastating wildfires in recent years, including in Eastern Washington.
The 2020 blaze that destroyed the towns of Malden and Pine City is believed to have started when a tree branch fell on an Avista powerline during a windstorm, and the Gray fire, which burned 10,000 acres, 240 homes and displaced thousands of people in and around Medical Lake two years ago, was sparked by a defunct security light on an Inland Power and Light utility pole, according to state fire investigators.
The underground lines would require less maintenance and reduce the risk of wildfire in the region because of their location: Avista won't need to trim trees to avoid downed lines, and those lines won't be around to be knocked down into ignitable foliage.
Avista plans to follow the same path, with a few deviations to bring the lines closer to nearby roads, as their existing overhead lines in the area. The majority run above 900 acres of forestland acquired by Spokane County in 2017 for $2.3 million, a purchase that connected the Mica Peak Conservation Area to Liberty Lake Regional Park for a combined 5,300 acres of public lands.
The existing lines, and soon the underground replacements, follow a 1 1/2 -mile track from the Federal Aviation Administration radar station at the mountain's peak, north to around East Henry Road, an elevation change of around 2,200 feet.
The 10-foot easement would replace a 1997, 60-foot-wide easement granted to Avista by the land's former owner, the Inland Empire Paper Company. Jonathan Smith, parks real estate manager and acquisition specialist for Spokane County, listed the return of public land as just one of the benefits of approving the new easement in a presentation to the commissioners last month. Inland Empire is owned by the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.
"We're bringing overhead power lines underground, so there's an aesthetic benefit," Smith said. "And, also, the main reason why Avista has requested this, is to reduce the potential wildfire risk."
After the underground lines are installed, Avista will remove their old utility poles and oversee a revegetation of the former 60-foot span. The company has agreed to "provide erosion and sediment control, reseed with native seed mixes, control noxious weeds and monitor the disturbed areas," according to a copy of the revegetation plan included in Smith's presentation.
Smith said noxious weed mitigation, important in a remote, less traveled area, and reseeding will be the main focus of the restoration. While a few trees may be removed during the project, Avista's plan calls for allowing natural opportunities for tree growth rather than replanting. The company will monitor the site through quarterly visits for the first two years following the project's completion, and then follow up with annual visits.
Spokane County Commission Chair Mary Kuney, who represents the district that encompasses Mica Peak, seemed to lend her support to the effort following Smith's presentation.
"Seems like it's pretty straightforward, and a good thing," Kuney said. "Especially if they're going to go underground."
