| Access past releases PR 17 04 BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
TUESDAY, March 23, 2004
Contact:
, BPA (503)-230-5131
Reward offered for spring vacation power line vandals PORTLAND, Ore. - Vandals disabled a Bonneville Power Administration interstate transmission line, putting it out of service for eight hours Sunday evening, March 21. BPA is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to their arrest and conviction. Two towers carrying BPA’s direct-current transmission line sustained extensive damage from gunfire, according to BPA security officer Erik Smith. “We found a great deal of shattered glass from the insulators that separate the high voltage lines from their towers,” Smith said. “The insulators were literally stripped away and so many were missing that the line shorted out.” Smith noted that the damage occurred about two miles west of Prineville, Ore., in an area where similar vandalism has been a problem. A year ago a set of insulators was stripped by gunfire from a tower several miles south of the point of Sunday’s incident. Smith said BPA has replaced the insulators on the towers with special materials that don’t shatter when shot. The repairs cost Northwest ratepayers about $10,000. At the time of the outage, the DC transmission line was lightly loaded and BPA was able to shift the power to other lines until repairs restored the DC line. There are no reports that BPA customers lost power. “That line can carry up to 3,100 megawatts,” Smith said. “If the line falls to the ground due to the damage, those in the immediate vicinity are in grave danger. We want to stop this before someone is killed.” Smith says BPA is working with the FBI, Oregon State Police and the Crook County Sheriff to develop information. “The eyes and ears of the people in the Prineville area are crucial,” Smith said. BPA offers a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest of individuals vandalizing government property. Since 1994, BPA’s Crime Witness program has generated hundreds of tips resulting in dozens of arrests, thousand of dollars of recovered property and, most important, deterrence of future crime. Cumulative savings since the program began total more than $4 million. To report information or tips, please call the Crime Witness Hotline at (800) 437-2744. The identity of informants is kept strictly confidential. # # # Submitted for distrubution on 2004-03-23 00:00:00.0 at 4:30 AM |
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Bonneville Power Administration, 905 N.E. 11th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97232
Mailing Address: Media Relations - KC7, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, OR 97208-3621 Phone: (503)230-5131 FAX: (503) 230-5884 Web Site: http://www.bpa.gov |