Okanogan Public Utility District: Transmission Line Permitting and Litigation

We were hired to represent the Okanogan PUD after an initial attempt to permit and approve a transmission line through the Methow Valley, one of Washington’s most environmentally sensitive areas, was rejected by the trial court. We assisted the PUD in putting together its environmental impact statement for the project and the response to hundreds of public comments and the conduct of multiple public hearings.

Following the preparation of the EIS, the project was once again challenged and we were asked to defend the PUD’s decision to go forward with the project based on the record that we had helped it develop. This litigation involved the assembly and certification of a record involving more than 14,000 documents, limited discovery, and then a trial on that record before the Okanogan Superior Court.

After the Superior Court sustained the PUD’s decision to go forward with the project based on the record, the project’s opponents sought review of that decision by both the Washington Court of Appeals, where we were successful once again, and before the Washington Supreme Court, which sustained the decision of both the trial court and the Court of Appeals.