Power line open house draws critics
BENTLEYVILLE – The parking lot at the Bentleyville Fire Hall was constantly full Tuesday night as Allegheny Power conducted an open house on its proposed high voltage power line that would run through Greene and Washington counties. Nearly all members of the general public attending the open house sported stickers opposing the power line project, expressing concerns about health risks, the environment, noise and higher electric bills. A group called stopthetowers.org handed out flyers, stickers and the addresses of area legislators outside the hall.
“It’s coming within a quarter mile of my backyard,” said Sean Dobich of stopthetowers.org. “It’s really not a backyard issue. It affects all the residents of Washington and Greene counties. We’re going to lose one of the few incentives we have in this area to attract new businesses. If we ship all of our low-cost energy out of state, the rates here will increase.”
Allegheny Power is proposing a 37-mile line from 502 Junction, which is proposed for Mount Morris in Greene County, to the proposed Prexie Station near Eighty Four in North Strabane Township, Washington County. A second 500-kilovolt line would run from 502 Junction to Loudon County in Northern Virginia.
David Neurohr, an Allegheny Power spokesman, said the electricity in the high-voltage line would come from the energy grid drawing power from power plants in the coalfields, primarily in West Virginia. The 502 Junction proposed for Greene County is at the intersection of three existing 500-kilovolt lines, Neurohr said.
“Growth in Washington County in the past 15 years has far outstripped the rest of the state,” Neurohr said.
Neurohr said he can’t say how much electric rates would go up as a result of the $120 million expected to be spent on the Pennsylvania part of the project. He said all rate increases must go through the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Neurohr said current electric bills include a transmission fee of about five percent.
“Our Pennsylvania rate payers pay for all infrastructure improvements. It’s our cost of doing business,” Neurohr said.
Neurohr said the PUC also needs to give approval to the project itself, though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could approve the project even if the PUC says no, Neurohr said, but only if the area of the line is designated a national interest corridor. Neurohr said that was unlikely for the Pennsylvania portion of the project, but it could apply to the line to Loudon, Va.
“That’s a major transmission bottleneck getting over the mountains,” Neurohr said.
Stopthetowers.org members handed out flyers quoting a study done for the California Department of Health Services in which three scientists evaluated the possible risks from power lines, internal wiring, electrical occupations and appliances. The study notes that its conclusions go against conclusions drawn by a study done by the National Institutes for Health. It also notes that the increased risk for certain diseases based on exposure to electromagnetic fields is small, since the diseases themselves are rare:
“With the exception of miscarriage, which is common, the other diseases for which EMFs may be a contributing cause (childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig’s Disease) have low incidence, with rates between 1/100,000 and 1/10,000 a year. Even doubling such rates and accumulating them over a childhood or a lifetime leaves accumulated lifetime risks between 1/1,000 and 1%. Thus the vast majority (99%-99.9%) of highly exposed people would still not contract these diseases,” the California study states.
Kris Ebi of Exponent, a scientific and engineering consulting firm hired by Allegheny Power, said the only consistent risk found in any of the studies is for an increase in childhood leukemia in children who are highly exposed to electromagnetic fields.
“It’s difficult to study, because we don’t know what causes childhood leukemia. The rate has consistently been about 4/1,000,” Ebi said.
“The line is being designed with a 200-foot right-of-way. At the boundaries of the right-of-way, the EMF exposure is no greater than background levels,” Neurohr said.
Joe Kirk, executive director of the Mon Valley Progress Council, supports the construction of the power line.
“We need it because we need to maintain a low-cost, reliable power source. A lot of power-related companies, if the cost of power goes up, they move,” Kirk said. “It’s important for economic development to support an infrastructure that supports economic development.”
Solar Power Industries in Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, is one local industry dependent on a consistent high power supply, Kirk said.
“We produce solar cells that go into solar panels,” said Robert Lazzari, the company’s vice president. “We need power in order to make the solar cells. We have furnace-type operations where we melt silicon to make these cells.”
Lazzari said the company currently has 116 employees with plans to expand to 200 by the end of the year, 350 by the end of 2008 and 428 by the end of 2009. Lazzari said he would like to see the company expand to 1,600 employees, which would mean expanding the facility beyond its current location.
Kim McCoy-O’Donnell, of Marianna, said she still isn’t convinced the new power line is needed.
“The line is about 3,200 feet behind my property, but when they put out the initial proposed lines, it was at the edge of my property. I’m one of the lucky ones. It’s affecting my neighbors and at this point, not in a positive way,” McCoy-O’Donnell said. “It’s affecting their ability to do what they want with their property. I’m sad. I’m devastated, more so for my community.”
McCoy-O’Donnell asked numerous questions, learning that a short-term herbicide affecting only broadleaf plants would be sprayed in the wood lots along the power line every 4-7 years, that the lines will be checked annually by helicopter, with a comprehensive aerial inspection every five years, and that the towers would be painted every 20 to 25 years.
Ron Dombrosky of Allegheny Power also told her that the configuration of the conductors on the proposed power lines would produce less noise than current high-power lines, dropping from the current 52 decibels in dry weather to 42 decibels, and from 62 in wet weather to 51 decibels.
“Every three decibel reduction cuts in half what you hear,” Dombrosky said.
Still, area residents were not convinced they want the towers near their homes.
“I’m a township supervisor and I’m here to get all the information I can. Hopefully, we can stop this line from going through. It’s not going to do anything for the people of our county. It will cause their electric bills to go up and it may cause health problems,” said Robert Mercante of West Bethlehem Township.
All three Washington County Commissioners and the Greene County Commissioners have gone on record opposing the plan.