| 03.11.05
Power Play
Those in the path feel harmed by proposed
VELCO upgrade
PETER HIRSCHFELD,
TIMES ARGUS
WATERBURY
– Tom Harvey measures the cost of power with his eyes.
His
father's 75-year-old Duxbury farm rests squarely in the path
of a proposed power line corridor; the Vermont land he grew
up on may soon be transected by a clear-cut swath 175 feet
wide to accommodate 65-plus-foot power poles.
Carrie Hathaway's Blush Hill home in Waterbury is far younger
– the bathroom cabinet doors just arrived. But she's
no less distraught than Harvey about the prospect of 65-foot,
three-wire poles replacing the 45-foot poles in her yard right
now.
Both Harvey and Hathaway are potentially affected by a power
line upgrade proposal currently in front of Vermont's Public
Service Board. The 9.5-mile project begins on the Harvey farm
in Duxbury, crosses the Winooski River and Route 2, then follows
an existing corridor running up Blush Hill and into Stowe.
"They're just taking land – cutting our property
in half and taking virgin territory," Harvey says. "It's
very frustrating. Very frustrating. This will take property
value away from us, and we're this hub in the grid forever."
But the PSB will have to measure Harvey's concerns against
the alleged need for increased reliability and capacity in
portions of Washington and Lamoille Counties. Officials with
Vermont Electric Power Co., the private transmission utility
seeking PSB approval for the $20.3 million project, say increased
electricity demands and aging infrastructure have led to substandard
reliability of the transmission system and a likely shortage
of capacity in the near future. The project would safeguard
ratepayers in Duxbury, Waterbury and Stowe against blackouts
and brownouts, company officials say.
Thursday afternoon, a bus filled with PSB Department staff,
town representatives and affected landowners embarked on a
four-hour tour of sites along the proposed line. PSB hearings
are still in the discovery phase and technical hearings aren't
likely to begin until July, but for the several dozen affected
landowners, the battle has begun.
Many landowners recognize the need for the project. The 34.5kv
lines running along the existing corridor are inadequate conduits
for the increasing power needs in the ever-consumptive resort
town of Stowe, according to VELCO spokesperson David Mace,
and electricity demands in Waterbury, Duxbury and other Lamoille
County towns are also growing.
The $20.3 million project, which ballooned from an initial
estimate of $13.4 million, would replace the existing 34.5kv
lines with 115kv lines, increasing capacity and reliability
in a vulnerable grid.
But while some embattled landowners may have accepted the
need for the project, the path the upgrade should follow has
proven a more contentious issue.
Hathaway's home sits along a meandering road in the Countryside
residential community off Blush Hill Road in Waterbury. The
existing 34.5kv line, constructed long before the scores of
homes and yards it runs through, is visually relatively benign.
But the new line would see trees cut and poles lengthened.
Bulky "dabits," metal protrusions off the wood pole
that would carry the three 115kv wires, would mar her bucolic
yardscape, Hathaway says, impacting the property value of
the scenic Vermont environs she has chosen to make her home.
Hathaway questions the "least cost option" rationale
behind the proposed path and says she thinks an alternative
route through the Little River Reservoir would better serve
the current and future residents of her neighborhood.
"I'm not much, but I'm all I think about," Hathaway
says, recounting an adage and readily admitting her Not-In-My-Backyard
bias. "But (the Little River) option hasn't really been
looked at. They're not taking into account property values
in their least cost analysis. There are estimates out there
that say there's 25 percent devaluation in property value
from projects like this."
Mace says the Little River route, where a 34.kv line also
exists, has been looked at. He says the route would cost measurably
more than the current proposal and that VELCO's obligations
lie with the Vermont ratepayers who will ultimately absorb
the cost of the project.
"We did do some evaluation of a route up to the Little
River Dam, and we believe the proposal we came forward with
is the better least-cost option," Mace says. "The
cost is going to be to ratepayers, so we think it's our obligation
to opt for the lower cost option. If we didn't, we wouldn't
be good stewards of (ratepayers') money."
Harvey, too, questions the intelligence of a path that cuts
through a prominent Duxbury farm and field. He says unpopulated
state forest land running parallel to the proposed route would
mitigate the line's effect on all Waterbury and Stowe residents
and that VELCO has not adequately explored the option.
"It seems like the whole process marches on without any
care at all. They haven't been forced to bring the (state
forest) right-of-way issue to a head," Harvey says. "Is
there an existing right-of-way through the state forest and
is that an option? It definitely is unexplored. At the public
meetings I've gone to, townspeople are adamantly certain that
when that property was turned over to the state in 1937, it
expressly retained the right to run power lines through it."
But Mace says that option is already off the table. VELCO,
at the behest of Waterbury and Stowe, submitted a request
to the Agency of Natural Resources to build the transmission
line through the Mount Mansfield State Forest.
The Agency of Natural Resources said VELCO's proposed route
through the state forest contravenes various legal and policy
concerns, namely a Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation
policy stating "no easement will be granted on state
land which is solely for the convenience of the utility company,
for which no direct benefit accrues to the Agency of Natural
Resources, and/or which does not serve the greater public
good."
The agency cited ecological problems with the route, including
impacts on wildlife habitat and incompatibility with the agency's
long-range management plan for the Mount Mansfield State Forest.
The ANR additionally noted that only the Legislature has the
authority to approve the leasing or exchange of state land,
and that such approval is typically only granted "if
it can be demonstrated that the proposal clearly serves a
public purpose and provides substantial public benefits.
"VELCO's proposal to route the transmission line through
state forestland would significantly impact an important publicly
owned natural and recreation resource while providing no apparent
benefits to the state," wrote ANR Commissioner Jonathan
Wood in a July 16 letter to VELCO.
"Even if it's determined that an easement does exist
and could be utilized, the agency would still have to approve
things like impact on deer yards, stream crossings and other
habitat considerations," Mace says. "So the fact
that an easement may or may not exist wouldn't necessarily
mean ANR would acquiesce or agree to the route."
The dozens of landowners advocating alternate routes will
have an opportunity during the hearing process to make their
cases. However Hathaway says that financially, it's difficult
to make a case against VELCO's proposal, and that the legal,
expert and technical analysis can run into the tens of thousands
of dollars.
Harvey, who calls the experience "surreal," says
he feels steamrolled by the process.
"The clock's just ticking," Harvey says. "I
don't dispute there might be a need for power. I have lights,
I know people need power. I just feel like us and our ideas
are being pushed off to the side."
Reprinted
with permission of the Times Argus
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