Seattle City Light expands in far eastern Washington

Much of Seattle's power comes from a dam across the state, where the city is about to put in employee housing.

Seattle officials voted Tuesday to buy or otherwise take over four plots of land in Pend Oreille County, Washington.

Seattle City Light runs a 300 foot tall dam there — Boundary Hydroelectric — which supplies about one third of the City of Seattle's energy. The city of Seattle built the dam in the 1960s, situated on the scenic Pend Oreille River near the Idaho and Canada borders.

Bill Devereaux is real estate director for Seattle City Light, which will now buy two nearby properties for employee housing.

"One of the parcels would be providing a place to stay while people are up there on many projects, over many years," he says, while the second is for people working to renovate the dam's generators.

Devereaux says the total cost of the parcels isn't yet known since they're not purchased yet. "At the end of the project if it's no longer needed we could always sell it."

The city council also gave approval to take over nearby wilderness land. Part of the city's license to operate the dam requires that workers conduct wildlife protection work, and they'll use the newly acquired parcels to do that. The cost of those properties is about $192,000.

Combined, the Boundary Hydroelectric and Diablo Lake dams provide about half of Seattle City Light's power, which is sent across the state on transmission lines.

Updated 09/04/2019