BAKER CITY — A Baker City couple has asked a judge to dismiss the eminent domain lawsuit Idaho Power Co. filed against them in September seeking an easement allowing the company to build the Boardman to Hemingway power transmission line across the couple’s property near Baker City.

The owners, Scott and Kylie Gressley, have rejected offers from Idaho Power to buy an easement.

If the company prevails in the lawsuit and an easement is granted, a jury would decide how much the company would pay the Gressleys.

The Boise company is represented by attorneys Tim J. Helfrich and Zach Olson, of the Yturri Rose firm in Ontario.

The Gressleys are represented by Baker City attorney Andrew Martin.

According to court records, this is the first lawsuit Idaho Power has filed in Baker County citing eminent domain — also known as condemnation — to gain access to and use of private property for the B2H project.

Scott Gressley, who has a cattle ranch along Beaver Creek several miles south of Baker City, said he and his wife bought the 2,000-acre property near the freeway in September 2022.

Gressley said he was aware of the B2H project at the time. He said Idaho Power has made offers to buy an easement across the property for the power line and an access road.

The lawsuit states that Idaho Power filed the complaint because the company couldn’t reach an agreement with the Gressleys to buy an easement, which would include a 160-foot-wide strip with the power line in the center, and a separate easement for two sections of access road. The easements would total about 14 acres, according to the lawsuit.

Idaho Power contends that the value of the easement is $18,690.

Gressley, though, believes that amount underestimates the long-term loss of value to his property and the effects it will have on how he uses it both during and after construction.

He said the line would run near a well that supplies drinking water to his cattle, and that construction will disrupt their grazing patterns.

In a counterclaim that Martin filed on the Gressleys’ behalf earlier this fall, the couple seeks the dismissal of Idaho Power’s lawsuit.

Alternatively, they ask a judge to order Idaho Power to pay them $25,000 as well as reasonable attorney’s fees.

In the counterclaim, the Gressleys say that although they objected to Idaho Power’s earlier request to access their property to do surveys related to B2H, they couldn’t prevent that access based on an Oregon law.

The counterclaim states that during the surveys, the Gressleys were “subjected to repeated intrusions and numerous individuals entering” their property. That activity “substantially interfered” with the Gressleys’ “use, access, enjoyment and value of the property,” and constituted a “taking of property interest for which Defendant Gressley has received no compensation,” according to the counterclaim.

After Idaho Power’s attorney filed the eminent domain lawsuit in September, Sven Berg, an Idaho Power spokesman, said that although the company won’t discuss individual lawsuits, “Idaho Power is asking judges to approve easements on properties on or near the B2H route where Idaho Power has not been able to reach an agreement with the landowners.”

“While the Oregon Public Utility Commission has authorized Idaho Power to use eminent domain, it is a last resort solution we want to avoid,” Berg said. “Idaho Power’s aim is to work collaboratively with landowners to establish easements that provide fair compensation and minimize impacts to the landowner. Even if we’ve started eminent domain proceedings, we will continue to negotiate, until court hearings begin, to reach a fair agreement.”

The 293-mile B2H transmission line, which will run from near Boardman to near Murphy, Idaho, is slated to be finished by June 2026.