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BIG SKY – The Madison County Board of Commissioners reviewed a funding agreement between NorthWestern Energy and the county for the proposed Mountain States Transmission Intertie project at their weekly meeting on Tuesday.

The $232,000 contract is for the reimbursement of services provided by contractors with the county on reviewing and analyzing potential impacts from the MSTI project, which would run 500-kilovolt electrical transmission lines south from Townsend and into Idaho. It calls for Madison County to submit three invoices to NorthWestern Energy: one for up-front funding to contractors, one after the project is one-third finished and one upon completion. The board concurred that all aspects of the contract looked agreeable but requested more time to finalize the language in the document.

The bulk of the project will be research and analysis of potential impacts from MSTI on communities, wildlife and local and regional economics by a consortium of conservation organizations, including the Western Environmental Law Center as well as the Craighead Foundation, Futures West, Headwaters Economic, the Renewable Northwest Project and the Sonoran Institute. These groups form the project liaison group.

Commissioner Dan Happel was quick to emphasize the importance of having public support for the project.

“We need to make sure that we do this in the best interest of our constituents in Madison County,” Happel said. “We need to protect the private property owners and we need to make sure that this process is completely unbiased and uncontrolled by any special interest, and that it be a process that is completely transparent.”

The process is set up to go through the project liaison group to make certain that “all the various perspectives are taken into account,” said WELC conservation strategist Monique DiGorgio.

“The function is really to provide oversight and input on the methodologies and ensure participation and active dialogue between people interested in the project,” DiGorgio said.

Commissioners planned to further discuss the agreement with DiGorgio later this week. At this point the project is progressing slowly, but DiGorgio said it is moving in the right direction.

“Everyone has been really pleasantly surprised at how we’ve been able to provide some independent research that’s more thoughtful,” she said. “It looks like we’re pretty well positioned to continue the project, but I think our biggest task will be making sure that everybody feels like they fully understand what the project is and that there is a way for them to engage at some level.”

Once Madison County Commissioners and NorthWestern Energy  have signed the contracts, the next step will be to schedule public hearings on the issue.

“Its time consuming to ensure that you spend as much time that’s needed to sit down and really talk and work this through,” DiGorgio said.