Sabotage Attempted At Transmission Tower

One Suspect Seen In Shasta County

October 23, 2003
By Chuck Carroll
Mercury News

Law enforcement agencies are scouring Northern California motels, campgrounds and rest areas seeking at least one man who may have been trying to knock out two huge electrical transmission towers in Northern California and Oregon earlier this week.

The case is being investigated as domestic terrorism, said FBI official Karen Ernst in Sacramento, under a federal law dealing with destruction of an energy facility.

In a bulletin issued to law enforcement agencies and obtained by the Mercury News, the FBI said that on Monday, investigators in the Shasta County city of Anderson discovered ``numerous'' nuts and bolts missing from two of the legs supporting an electrical transmission tower.

Nearly all the bolts on one leg of the 230-volt Anderson transmission line tower were removed, along with about half the bolts on the second. The line moves power south from the Pacific Northwest to the Sacramento region.

If all the bolts had been removed, the tower would be at risk of toppling, said LaVerne Kyriss of the Western Area Power Administration, which owns the line that was vandalized. ``That wouldn't necessarily cause an outage,'' she said, because power would be quickly rerouted.

Despite the safeguards in the system, a successful attack would still threaten the stability of the grid.

The power administration has increased security patrols, Kyriss said, and the missing bolts on the tower in Anderson have been replaced.

The FBI asked law enforcement at all levels to be on the lookout for a man who fled late Monday afternoon when three utility workers confronted him at the foot of the Anderson transmission tower near Interstate 5, about 184 miles north-northeast of San Francisco.

Law enforcement officials identified the man as 62-year-old Michael Poulin, sometimes known as Michael Devlyn, from Washington state. According to the FBI bulletin, Poulin has a record of attempted murder and detonation of destructive devices.

Ernst would not comment on the bulletin, saying it was not intended to be released publicly. Although the bulletin describes the person as a suspect, Ernst said the FBI is seeking him for questioning.

Three hours before the Anderson incident, utility workers about 150 miles north, near Klamath Falls, Ore., saw someone apparently tampering with the base of another transmission tower, power officials and police said. There was no damage to the tower.

Anderson Police Chief Neil J. Purcell said the three electrical engineers who confronted the suspect in Anderson were driving past the tower about 5:30 p.m. when they noticed an unmarked truck and a man with large wrenches hunched at the base of the tower.

The man saw them coming and fled in his truck, a silver 1997 Toyota T-100 pickup truck with a small orange Honda motorcycle attached to the rear bumper.

The engineers followed him and photographed the truck as it headed south on Interstate 5 but backed off at the Shasta-Tehama county line when Anderson police put out an alert.

Witnesses in both incidents gave authorities similar descriptions of the man and the truck. Officials are looking for a 62-year-old white man, about 5 feet 11 and described as overweight. He has long graying hair, a beard, wire-rimmed glasses and brown eyes. The truck he was driving had Washington plates with the number A36457P.

Anyone who sees Poulin, the vehicle, or other suspicious activity is asked to call the FBI's Sacramento office at (916) 481-9110 or the Western Area Power Administration toll-free at (800) 209-8962.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/7082614.htm