Dominion Power’s business allies line up at power-line hearing, but opponents speak out, too
By James P. Gannon
The opening round of public hearings on Dominion Virginia Power Company’s plan to build a new high-voltage transmission line across Rappahnnock and adjacent counties began in Warrenton Thursday with a parade of business allies backing the utility’s plan, countered by vehement opponents including a farmer, a real estate agent, a politician and a Rappahannock County woman.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission, which will decide whether and where the proposed 500,000-volt line will be built, opened what promises to be a series of long and contentious hearings that will stretch into 2008. The setting was the 1,200-seat auditorium of Fauquier High School in Warrenton, where a modest crowd of witnesses and observers filled perhaps one-tenth of the seats at the afternoon session.
The hearing was to resume Thursday evening at 7 p.m. with a second day of testimony scheduled Friday, starting at 9 a.m., until all those who sign up to speak are heard.
Witnesses were sworn in and spoke into a microphone at a podium at the front of the auditorium, addressing their comments to the lone SCC official presiding, hearing examiner Alexander F. Skirpan, who sat at a table on a the raised stage facing the witnesses. Skirpan said the hearings “will go as long as anyone wants to testify” and warned the audience against any applause, boos or other outbursts.
Speakers were called to the podium in the order that they had signed up, and it soon became apparent that Dominion’s business allies had arrived early to get prime speaking spots for the first-day’s news coverage of the hearings. Eight of the first ten speakers were heads of various Chambers of Commerce, primarily from suburban Northern Virginia, or business owners who stressed the need for more electric power for the booming DC Metro region, urging SCC approval of the transmission line.
The new power line is critical to the continued economic growth of Northern Virginia as a “global technology hub,” William Lecos, president of the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, told the hearing. Building the new line will insure against power shortages in the future, he said. Like other business speakers, Lecos referred to a recent study by KEMA, a Massachusetts consulting firm, that has been used by Dominion as the basis for full-page newspaper ads claiming that Northern Virginians would have to cut electricity use by 40% to avoid shortages if the line is not built.
Lecos also endorsed Dominion’s “preferred” route for the line–the route that would carry the line and its 120-foot tall transmission towers across eastern Rappahannock County, as opposed to the alternate route along Interstate 66, which is 28-miles shorter and would cost $60 million less to build than the roundabout, fish-hook-shaped route through less-populated Warren, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Fauquier and Prince William Counties.
“We are pleased that Dominion’s preferred route follows an existing transmission line and will have minimal effect on the affected localities,” he stated–a statement that would trigger strong reaction later in the hearing.
Several small business owners from suburban Virginia and the heads of the Virginia, Prince William, and Vienna-Tysons Chamber of Commerces made similar statements, all urging approval of Dominion’s plan.
Speakers opposing the power line argued that it would despoil a scenic and historic region, lower property values, present health hazards, and disrupt farm operations. Several testified that Dominion has not demonstrated a clear need for the line and asserted that is needed more to serve the power-hungry Northeast rather than Virginia, and is motivited by Dominion’s drive for higher profits.
The only Rappahannock County witness in the first round of the afternoon session was Kathy Christie of Sperryville, who took note of the parade of Dominion allies who dominated the first hour of the hearing.
“I applaud Dominion Power for stacking the deck right up front with all their people,” Christie noted with sarcasm as she began her remarks. She then launched into a lengthy and deeply researched statement stressing that Dominion’s plan envisions importing power from aging, obsolete and highly-polluting Ohio power plants that do not meet Clean Air Act standards and should have been shut down long ago.
“It is much cheaper for the power industry to continue to rely on some of its dirtiest plants than to utilize cleaner generation energy plants located closer to Northeast demand,” Christie stated. “Dominion Power’s plan will insure the continuous operation of polluting plants which should have long ago been shut down or replaced….these Ohio Valley power plants are among the largest sources” of air pollution in the nation. This pollution, she said, “wafts eastward on a daily basis, harming the health of our citizens” and fouling the air in Virginia.
“When we are seeking to reduce levels of greenhouse gases, why would Virginia want to increase them by letting this proposal go any further?” she asked.
The first speaker at the hearing was Del. L. Scott Lingenfelter, who represents Fauquier and Prince William counties in the Virginia House of Delegates, a strong opponent of the Dominion Power proposal. “I am proud to join a chorus of voices opposing this transmission line,” he said. “There has not been a clear or convincing case made” that the line is needed to serve Virginia.
Kathleen King of Broad Run, VA, said she had gone to all of Dominion’s public information meetings on the transmission line, only to find “there were absolutely no straight answers” to her questions. Her home, she said, is in the path of the alternate route along I-66 and “nobody would say how close” the line would run to her property.
“All of us find our property, our future and our lives handicapped by this over-hanging threat,” King said. She argued that Domion’s plan of transporting coal-fired electricity over wires on towers “is Nineteenth Century technology” rather than adopting new “green” energy sources. “I see no reason why we should give up our property and our future so they can built huge towers with big wires …..tell these guys to take a hike and come into the 21st Century!”
The applause that broke out after that statement prompted the hearing examiner to threaten to clear the room and call witnesses one-by-one to testify without any audience. That quieted the crowd.
Julie Martin of Marshall, VA, who said she has been a real estate agent since 1982, said the threat of the power line running through her area near I-66 has had devastating effects. “The market is at a standstill now,” she said. “What really brought it to a standstill was the announcement of the power line,” causing buyers to shun properties anywhere near the line might run.
The power line “would go through very historic properties,” she said, and would ruin wetlands in the area, Martin added. “I don’t think Dominion Power has proven a need for this.”
A Fauquier County farmer, R. Wayne Arrington of Catlett, complained that “Dominion has not been a good neighbor to the agricultural community.”
Arrington said an existing transmission line crosses his farms, and the utility’s contracted line-maintenance crews have repeatedly done damage to his property, rutting fields and ruining fences. “Our farms were ravaged from one end to the other….Our fences were cut….They climb over barbed wire fences, they don’t know how to use gates.”
In moving testimony, Arrington said his mother, who lived within 180 feet of the existing power line, died recently of multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. After she died, he testified, “The doctor looked at me and asked, ‘Does she live near a power line?’……There seems to be an associated health issue” with living near transmission lines, he said–a frequent assertion that the electrical utility industry says is unproved.
Arrington also said that he has two genetically-identical herds of cattle on his farms, but the herd that grazes under the power line has shown “increased abortions and delayed breeding,” raising questions that the high-voltage lines affect cows’ reproductive fitness.
He summed up: “I think Northern Virginia should come up with their own solutions” to power needs. “It is not up to me to solve their problem.”
During August, hearings will continue at locations in Bristow, Winchester and Front Royal, VA. The Front Royal hearing will convene on Wednesday, Aug. 15 at 1:30 p.m. and continue that evening at 7 p.m. at the North Warren Volunteer Fire Deparment, 89 Rockland Road. The hearing will continue Aug. 16 for a second day, starting at 9:30 a.m.
In January, the SCC examiner will begin taking testimony from the participants in the case, including Dominion and its partner in the project, Allegheny Energy, and various governmental officials. After those hearings, the SCC examiner is expected to take several months to write his findings and recommendations for a later decision by the full SCC, probably some time after mid-2008. If the commission approves the project, Dominion hopes to have it built by 2011.
-- James P. Gannon
Write a comment