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Rappahannock County government will vigorously fight Dominion’s plan for new power line through county
By James P. Gannon
The Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors unanimously opposes Dominion Virginia Power Company’s plan to build a new high-voltage power line across the county and will vigorously fight the proposal, County Administrator John McCarthy told a packed meeting Monday evening.
“This is going to be a long fight and a tough one, because Dominion has a lot of power,” the county official told a standing-room-only crowd at the meeting of the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection at the county library. RLEP’s board invited the public to its monthly meeting to share their views on the utility’s plan to use an existing transmission corridor that cuts across the eastern portion of the county before entering Culpeper County.
More than 50 concerned citizens showed up to fill the small library meeting room. The meeting served as a warm-up to what promises to be an even larger public forum on the controversial utility plan to be held this Thursday evening at the Rappahannock County High School auditorium from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Piedmont Environmental Council and RLEP are hosting that meeting to rally citizen opposition to Dominion’s proposal.
The Rappahannock citizens came with many questions about the revised Dominion proposal, but officials explained that there weren’t many answers yet, because the utility has not spelled out the specifics of its route, the right-of-way that may be needed, the height of the new towers or other details. Dominion officials are due to meet with McCarthy on Wednesday in Washington, Va., after which some of the answers may be disclosed.
Among major questions not yet answered are whether Dominion will demand a wider right-of-way along the existing corridor, and whether a new, taller series of towers will be build alongside the existing towers. McCarthy has said he believes both are likely–a wider right-of-way, and a twin set of towers marching across the county.
“It is a huge, real threat” to Rappahannock County, RLEP president Paul Farmer told the meeting. RLEP has formed a Power Line Task Force to study the issue and rally public opposition, Farmer said. Monira Rifaat, who lives and farms near Sperryville and who will head the task force, told the crowd: “We need to show that we mean business” in vigorously opposing the utility’s plan.
The county adminstrator gave the audience some encouragement in reporting that he had spoken to all five members of the Board of Supervisors, and they unanimously oppose the utility line and will back a fight against it. At the back of the room supervisors Roger Welch of Wakefield district and Ron Frazier of Jackson district–the two districts to be crossed by the new line–listened in a visible show of support.
“I can represent to you that all the members of the Board of Supervisors are opposed to this proposal,” McCarthy said. “We are talking to neighboring counties about legal actions that we can take,” he added, noting that the county may have to help finance the fight. “We will be fighting it,” McCarthy promised.
He also stressed that there is not a lot of time because Dominion has said it plans to file its plan before the State Corporation Commission by April, and that the county government needs citizen support to be effective. “The bottom line is that this is going to take an effort from just about everybody–the government, the non-profit organizations, the citizens” and others, McCarthy said.
RLEP and PEC are banding together to help organize that broad-based effort, starting with Thursday evening’s rally at the high school. PEC’s Rappahannock County representative, Don Loock, passed out bumper stickers and yard signs opposing the power line to people at the meeting, and said the fight “is going to take a huge, grass-roots effort” plus legal action to have any hope of success.
PEC took the lead in fighting the original Dominion plan to run a new 500 kilovolt line through northern Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties on a route roughly paralleling Interstate 66. After that plan stirred up a firestorm of public and political opposition, the utility announced on Feb. 13 that it instead had chosen to run the line along an existing transmission corridor that crosses Warren, Rappahannock, Culpeper and southern Fauquier counties to a substation near Reminington, Va.
The new route, shaped like a fish hook, would be 28 miles longer and $60 million more costly to build than the straight-line route originally proposed, but it avoids crossing the densely populated areas along the I-66 corridor, which have greater political weight than the more rural areas chosen as a fallback. McCarthy said Monday that he believes the utility switched plans to defuse the controversy, especially in the Virginia General Assembly, where the focus on the utility route was distacting attention from a bill that was Dominion’s highest priority–a bill that would re-regulate utilities in Virginia in a way favorable to Dominion’s profits.
“They were trying to get the General Assembly off their backs,” McCarthy commented. The tactic apparently is succeeding, for key committes of the legislature approved the re-regulation bill favored by Dominion on Monday.
Rifaat said the citizen Task Force has begun raising money to finance the public campaign against the power line. “We are going to have to put our dollars where our heart is–we have to do it,” she pleaded. Those wishing to donate to the effort should make checks out to “RLEP/Power Line” and send to RLEP/Power Line, P.O. Box 94, Washington, VA, 22747. Those funds will be earmarked for this purpose only, Rifaat said, and will go to PEC to buy yard signs, posters, printing and other efforts to oppose the Dominion plan.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from Farmer
Time: February 20, 2007, 12:17 pm
The RLEP Powerline Task Force opposing Dominion’s plans to bring a new high-voltage transmission line through Rappahannock and Culpeper Counties includes representation and participation by both Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and Concerned Culpeper Citizens. I want to thank both of those groups for their cooperation and support. Donations collected as reported in Mr. Gannon’s article are potentially tax deductible for donors and will be acknowledged as such by RLEP. Those funds will be used as recommended by the Task Force and approved by the RLEP Board, first to cover expenses of the Task Force, second to defer PEC expenses related to the fight in Rappahannock County, and third to defer PEC expenses related to the fight throughout the Piedmont, including Culpeper County. Please be generous. The costs of expert technical briefs and legal defense are very large. RLEP’s initial goal is $10,000; a very small downpayment in this battle. RLEP alone spent $110,000 in a similar fight in the mid-1970’s when a dollar went a lot further. Checks should be written to:
RLEP/Powerline
PO Box 94
Washington, VA 22747-0094
Thank you all,
Paul Farmer, President,
Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection
Comment from NoPowerTowers
Time: February 20, 2007, 4:06 pm
A great move by the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors! Knowing Dominion’s record of slime and greed, the No Power Towers campaign remains in full effect and will keep a close on Dominion’s next move.
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