They voted 2-to-0 to permit the utility to lay the natural gas line, which will stretch 7 1/2 miles from Lehi to the plant now taking shape on 60 acres in Vineyard.

It was a tough vote. Commissioners maintain Questar failed to talk to or work with them in advance to find the best route for the 20-inch-diameter pipeline. But, they say, a hefty population increase - the county's numbers are up 100,000 more than the 368,000 residents tallied in 2000 - make the power plant a necessity.

"Questar has painted us into a box," Commissioner Steve White said before joining Commissioner Larry Ellertson in approving the pipeline. "We don't want to have rolling blackouts. The amount of power being used per household isn't decreasing; it's increasing. We have more toys, more air-conditioning and more everything else."

But, he added, "I don't ever want to see something like this come before the County Commission" in this manner.

Commissioner Jerry Grover, who is ill, was absent.

For their part, company officials contend they gave the county plenty of advance notice and have dealt fairly with property owners while securing easements from most of them.

"We're ready to move forward and complete the project according to our agreement with Utah Power," Questar spokesman Steve Chapman said. "We're required to have the line in service by the end of October."

Landowner Alan Christensen, who owns one of the 33 parcels that will be impacted by the nearly 2-foot-wide pressurized pipe, knows the commission was cornered. But he worries about the damage to crops and about Questar making good on its promises for compensation and mitigation.

"This was a case of big money trumping sound planning," Christensen said. Questar "knows there will be serious environmental damage and has not been forthright."

Questar has sued Christensen, his brother Niel and a few other property owners over compensation for the land.

"How does 20 percent of $37,000-per-acre valuation sound?" Alan Christensen asks. "That's their offer, and it's way below market. Right down on the [Utah Lake] shore the other day, ground sold for $80,000 an acre."

To begin distributing electricity to Utah Valley businesses and homes by November 2007, the $330 million plant needs the 180 million cubic feet per day of gas the Questar line will supply. The route for the line will stretch from the intersection of 8730 West and 8170 North in Lehi southeast to Lake Side, which is west of the old Geneva Steel Plant.

County engineers and property owners favored two alternate routes: one farther east that would follow an existing road or another farther west that would follow an old sewer line.

But Questar officials countered that their preferred route would fall within a 190-foot-wide power-line corridor and not encumber any more ground. If an alternate path was picked, they insisted, they would have to begin the planning and environmental process all over - and the project would be delayed.

meddington@sltrib.com