Grant PUD’s General Manager John Mertlich was invited to attend the Marlin City Council meeting on March 17 to answer questions from residents in the area about Grant PUD’s recent purchase of 960 acres of farm and undeveloped shrub steppe land. The following is a synopsis of the questions from those in attendance with answers primarily provided by Grant PUD staff members following the meeting.
1. Why build an SMR (Small Modular Reactor) or other kind of power plant out here?
2. Why not put it next to your house and your schools, or in your commissioners’ backyards?
3. What about wildfire safety? This area is prone to wildland fires.
4. What is the workforce required for operating an SMR?
5. What is the workforce required for operating a solar farm?
6. What about transportation infrastructure needed to support the development?
7. How much lighting would be needed for the project? (Multiple residents brought up concerns about impact to views and night sky)
8. Multiple residents brought up concerns that more traffic and people would bring more crime.
9. Multiple residents brought up concerns about negative impacts to Marlin’s lifestyle and changing their valued small-town dynamics. Marlin is the smallest city in the state, and residents said they wanted to keep it that way.
10. Multiple residents brought up concerns about noise impacts from reciprocating engines, SMRs, or other kinds of power plants.
11. Residents brought up concerns about impact to local ag and a feedlot being constructed on a property near the Grant PUD property.
12. Are other utilities looking at building SMRs?
13. Several residents expressed concerns about the impacts to public health from a nearby nuclear facility.
14. What about transmission lines connected to a power plant, where would they be located?
15. How close would someone from Grant PUD live next to an SMR plant? Some residents are just 40 acres away.
16. A resident said it was offensive that Grant PUD stated there were few impacts to cultural resources by developing the property. The resident said the people of Marlin have a vital culture important to them.
17. Residents brought up concerns about safety issues in the past with Grant PUD including a powerhouse fire at Wanapum Dam and the Central Ephrata Substation fire.
18. How soon could an SMR be built?
19. What about services for construction and power-plant workers including gas stations and restaurants?
20. Residents brought up concerns about the impact of transmission lines on landscape views.
21. What is the local benefit?
22. A resident made the statement that some people in the area near the property aren’t even connected to the power grid by choice.
23. What about impacts to the aquifer? If this development requires pumping water out of the ground, it could cause other wells to go dry.
24. What is the driver of developing something out there? Where will the power go?
25. Residents brought up concerns about impacts to the Hutterite community, which is near the Road W Property. How is Grant PUD planning to reach out to them?
26. We appreciate the cheap, reliable power that Grant PUD provides. We just think a power plant should be located closer to where industry is located.
27. Why can’t we say no to our industrial customers and not provide them with any more power?
28. The property should just be used for Shrub Steppe mitigation.
29. How many other locations in Grant County are being considered for power plants?
30. The property regularly gets flooded in the spring.
31. It’s all about money for Grant PUD, isn’t it?
32. It’s not green energy if you take out all of this nature.
33. What about hunting on the property next hunting season?
34. In the end, if Grant PUD decides to build a power plant on the site, would you do it even if we object?
(Editor’s note: This meeting took place at the Hydro Office Building, near Wanapum Dam and was not recorded.)
(Note: Commissioners also announced the new general manager this week. Details are in a separate news release here.)
Careful budgeting and disciplined spending resulted total expenditures of $464.4 million in 2024 – only $2.9 million below that year’s original budget forecast, according to the latest figures, shared with commissioners Tuesday.
EPHRATA WA - Grant PUD Commission voted to appoint John Mertlich as the next General Manager and CEO position during their meeting on March 11.
Planting a tree isn’t just a great way to spruce up your landscape—it’s also a smart investment in energy efficiency. At Grant PUD, we believe in solutions that benefit your home and the environment. Trees not only add beauty to your property but also help reduce cooling and heating costs, improve air quality, and protect water quality. According to the National Arbor Day Foundation, strategically placed trees can help the average homeowner save up to 20% on energy costs.
Grant PUD’s Enterprise Project Management Office is using a powerful combination of software tools to better track the cost and progress over time of the capital projects they oversee, commissioners learned this week.
The information helps guide business decisions and deliver projects at the highest value. The office is also investigating whether to pursue becoming “self-certified” in “Design Build,” the state’s streamlined bidding, contracting and building process.
Self-certification could reduce timelines even more on projects that include electric system expansion and upgrades. See the full report on pages 2-17 of the presentation materials. Hear the discussion at 13:49 on the commission audio.
Grant County PUD was at the center of a recent article in The Capital Press. Many of the comments made in the article were inaccurate with omissions, assumptions and accusations made. The Commission is responding publicly to the landowners and other public residents to correct inaccurate information.
Grant PUD Commissioners formally announced that they accepted the resignation of General Manager/Chief Executive Officer Rich Wallen during their meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
Charitable giving through investments in energy conservation
(Note: We apologize for this week's audio recording, which is intermittent in parts, due to technical problems.)
For the past 25 years, Grant PUD’s wholesale Fiber Optic network has been in growth mode as it focused on the task of building out a system to serve Grant PUD customers countywide. Now with all major construction complete for the initial network, the Grant PUD Telecom & Fiber Services team is moving into a new era of operations and maintenance to keep the wholesale network sustainable.
Managing Winter Energy Costs
Winter isn’t the only time of year electricity use and power bills go up in Grant County. Prolonged hot spells have the same effect on the family power bill, increasing the financial burden for families in need.
Priest Rapids Dam is “suitable for safe and continued operation,” according to its comprehensive safety assessment, commissioners learned Tuesday.
Winter isn’t the only time of year electricity use and power bills go up in Grant County. Prolonged hot spells have the same effect on the family power bill, increasing the financial burden for families in need.