UPDATE: Sacramento utility pulls support for transmission lines

The proposed towering transmission lines through the Mid-Valley region appear to be on hold, after the Sacramento Municipal Utility District announced plans to withdraw its support for the process.

With the district's decision to withdraw, other agency members will re-evaluate the project, a spokesman for the Transmission Agency of Northern California said.

"Obviously, this is a major development, so some things will change," said TANC spokesman Brendan Wonnacott, based in Sacramento. "The bottom line is we believe this line is needed."

TANC had three proposed routes for the transmission lines: one down the western side of the Sacramento Valley through part of Colusa County, one through the middle that would have bisected Sutter County near the Sutter Buttes, and one through Yuba County east of Marysville, on the valley floor.

At public outreach meetings held by TANC in Williams and Marysville, several residents expressed concern the lines would affect their property values and interfere with practices on their land, such as crop dusting.

Wonnacott said upcoming outreach meetings in Redding, Glenn County and other locales this month have been postponed. No meetings were scheduled in the Mid-Valley region this month.

However, the agency will still accept public comments on the scoping process through the end of the month, he said.

Wonnacott said the four remaining members of TANC will meet to discuss the next step, but it was too soon to say what they might decide or how soon they'll decide it.

"This allows members to step back and determine what our best options are," he said.

The lines, which would have included 150-foot-tall towers and a wide right of way, would extend about 600 miles from Lassen County to power stations near Tracy.

Officials didn't expect a final decision on which route to use, if any, until 2011 or 2012.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com.