Dominion line plan draws opposition
Opponents speak against Dominion Power plan for new line
by DONNIE JOHNSTON
Date published: 2/28/2007
by DONNIE JOHNSTON
Fauquier Supervisor Ray Graham last night told those who oppose Dominion Virginia Power's "preferred route" for a 500 KV power line through parts of his and three other neighboring counties to stand firm.
"This is a fight to the death!" he said during a Piedmont Environmental Council informational rally on the controversial project.
About 150 people turned out at Liberty High School to hear Graham, PEC President Chris Miller and Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Fauquier, discuss the recent power line route change and plot strategies to help defeat it.
Dominion, faced with powerful opposition to its initial proposal to run the high-voltage transmission lines through the much wealthier Northern Fauquier area, recently shifted its focus to Rappahannock, Culpeper and southern Fauquier counties.
The line in question would follow present power routes for the most part, but would require wider rights-of-way and taller (as high as 160 feet) support structures, according to PEC officials.
Miller told the gathering of Dominion's insistence that the high voltage line was needed to meet the growing energy demands of Northern Virginia was untrue.
"We still don't know what problem Dominion is trying to solve, but it is not Northern Virginia," Miller said.
He added that the PEC believes that the proposed power line is part of a more complex utility conspiracy designed to move electricity from power plants in the Ohio Valley to the New York City area.
Miller said that Dominion Power has offered no proof that the extra electricity is needed and played down the utility's assertion that rolling blackouts might soon occur should the project not be completed. "A rolling blackout is controlled by the utility operator and has nothing to do with the transmission line," Miller said.
Many of those attending last night's meeting were property owners who would be affected by the new plan.
"They knock on your door, then they just take your land," said one man who said he had had prior dealings with utility companies.
Miller suggested that the condemnation process was not as simple as that, but said utility companies are now aided by a 2005 federal law that allows them to function under the imminent domain statutes.
Strategies suggested by audience members to thwart Dominion Power's plan included using global warming as a tactic and asking Dominion to add a third or fourth reactor at its Louisa nuclear plant.
Lingamfelter said the power line project would create more smog for area skies and further pollute the Chesapeake Bay.
It was also suggested that two local airports, one at Midland and the Flying Circus at Bealeton, would be impacted by the higher support structures.
Last night's was the second in a series of PEC meetings on the Dominion Power plan.
The next will be held Mar. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Jeffersonton Community Center in Culpeper County.
Read more stories about Culpeper
Date published: 2/28/2007
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