Easement authority opposes PATH

Group says power lines set to cut through multiple preservation lots

By Ben Orcutt - borcutt@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- The Frederick County Conservation Easement Authority adopted a resolution on Wednesday opposing the construction of the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline in Frederick County.

"We're in the business of promoting and supporting conservation easements and if you look at the path of that thing, it cuts right through one easement that is held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and it also cuts through multiple rural preservation lots in the county, like when someone has developed something and they have set something aside that unless something changes that the county looks at as essentially unbuildable," the authority's chairwoman, Diane Kerns, said Wednesday.

"That was the reason that it was brought in front of us. Just in general, when you look at the whole situation, not counting the easement stuff, it would degrade Frederick County and we're not going to get a thing out of it."

Kerns said that Wednesday's vote was unanimous among the five members of the nine-member panel who were present. Richie Wilkins, the panel's vice chairman, was not present at the meeting but said he would have supported the resolution.

"It's a shame, particularly people who have tried to put their land in a conservation easement to protect their land," he said. "I mean, they've agreed to give up certain rights that they have and then to create a certain setting and a certain look to the community, and then to have a power line come through and disrupt that is, I think, frustrating to quite a few people, none more than the people who have the line go through them."

Shawnee District Supervisor Gene Fisher, who also is an authority member and who voted for the resolution, spoke in a similar vein.

"I think the legitimate reason [to pass the resolution is] for the impact to our county that it would create," Fisher said. "The open space that we're trying to protect and maintain is unfortunately the focus of this transmission line."

Clarke County Board of Supervisors Chairman J. Michael Hobert, who represents the Berryville District, also weighed in.

"The proposed route appears to have a negligible impact upon Clarke County, but we do not see any benefit from the line to the community since it provides no local service," Hobert said in an e-mail. "I will leave it to others to justify the need for this extraordinary transmission capacity."

American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy Inc. filed a new application with the State Corporation Commission for the construction of the Virginia portion of PATH on Monday.
The $2.1 billion, 275-mile, 765-kilovolt transmission line is projected to run from the Amos substation near St. Albans, W.Va., through Frederick, Clarke and Loudoun counties in Virginia to the proposed Kemptown substation near New Market in Frederick County, Md., according to a news release and the filing with the SCC.

PATH Allegheny Virginia Transmission Corp. originally filed an application for the 31-mile Virginia portion of the line in May 2009, but the SCC allowed the firm to withdraw the application in January.

The PATH SCC filing says that Mid-Atlantic electricity transmission manager PJM Interconnection's latest findings "indicate that the PATH Project needs to be in service by June 1, 2015," rather than 2014.

PATH's filing asserts that if the project is not built there could be "transmission line overloads and voltage drops or voltage collapse.

These outcomes could cause or lead to a 'blackout' or a 'brownout,' with the affected area potentially consisting of a single community, several communities or an entire region."

Based on a four-year construction schedule, the filing asks that the SCC grant approval within one year of Monday's filing date.

The PATH filing also seeks approval to construct two non-contiguous segments in Virginia within a 200-foot right of way and also is requesting that the SCC "certify construction of the PATH Project in any location that PATH-VA may identify within a corridor consisting of 600 feet on each side of the center line shown on the maps included [in exhibits] if necessary to accommodate circumstances and concerns that may arise during this proceeding and after issuance of the Commission's order in the proceeding."

The filing adds that the "proposed route is substantially unchanged" from the one presented at open houses that were conducted last year and in 2008.

To view maps of the proposed and alternate transmission routes, visit PATH's web site at www.pathtransmission.com.

Frederick County Conservation Easement Authority: Resolution Opposing PATH

"Now therefore, be it resolved, that the Frederick County Conservation Easement Authority hereby opposes the construction of PATH anywhere inside the boundaries of Frederick County until the completion of a federal programmatic Environmental impact Statement, with full public review under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, addressing the need for power, alternatives to the PATH proposal, and all significant impacts on the human environment of the PATH proposal and its reasonable alternatives."

Source: Frederick County Conservation Easement Authority PATH resolution