APCO SAYS AREAS ARE VULNERABLE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 28, 1992                   TAG: 9202280092
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
APCO SAYS AREAS ARE VULNERABLE
Appalachian Power Co. executives gave reporters a four-hour briefing on a proposed 765,000-volt power line Thursday while a dozen protesters from as far away as West Virginia picketed outside.
If a new power line is not built by 1998, failure of one segment of its present line will leave Apco "very vulnerable" to blackouts, said Charles Simmons, the utility's vice president for construction and maintenance.
Most of Apco's generating plants are near the coalfields on major streams in northwestern West Virginia, leaving its territory south and east of Charleston vulnerable to power failure if lines are not reinforced, he said.
But timing is tight for state approval and construction of the power line, which would run about 110 miles from Oceana, W.Va., to Cloverdale. Engineering and design studies would take two years and construction would require about four years, said Carl Persing, project coordinator.
While Simmons, Persing and three other speakers told reporters about the power line, Apco opponents walked for four hours in a chilly wind carrying signs stating, "Say No to Apco," "Conservation, Not Construction," "Harmful, Not Needed, Not Wanted" and "Apco's Facts Are Closer to Fiction."
"A lot of people signed our petition [against the line]," said Buddy Mitchell, a Craig County opponent.
Jeff Janosko, a leader of the Roanoke County Preservation League, was there, and other opponents came to the Apco headquarters in Roanoke from Monroe County, W.Va.
Richard Ettelson of Waitville, W.Va., was among a dozen protesters marching in front of the power company's office building during the seminar. He pointed out that the environmental adviser Apco hired for the project, Bill Tanger, is president of an advertising agency.
"That's the kind of spin they're putting on things up there," he said, gesturing to the office building.
But Tanger - who was a founder of Friends of the Roanoke River - said he thought he could do more to protect the environment by making suggestions from inside the company rather than from the outside. "I thought it was daring of them to bring a pit bull, so to speak, into the hen house," he said.
Simmons said the project is based on the need to serve Apco customers, with provisions for independent power plants and sales to other utilities in off-peak seasons as secondary benefits.
The electrical load on Apco lines has grown more than 80 percent since 1973, he said. "Our loads continue to grow. In the winter of 1991-92, a relatively mild winter, we had an increased load of 3 percent."
But opponents say Apco has not proved it needs a new line.
State Corporation Commission hearings will be held in New Castle in April and in Richmond in July. The West Virginia Public Service Commission also must approve the line before construction can begin.
After the briefing, Simmons said the schedule will be "very difficult," but he would like to see approval by mid-1993. The West Virginia application should be ready in about a month, he said. SCC approval could come by the end of this year, he said.
Another delaying factor is an environmental impact study to be provided by the Jefferson National Forest. Although forest officials have had Apco's plan since June 1990, they have not awarded a contract for that study, which is expected to take more than a year, Simmons said.
The line would create up to 2,300 permanent jobs and another 1,000 in construction, according to Ron Poff, transmission and distribution manager. Virginia's share of new property taxes from the line would be $800,000 a year, he said.
The permanent jobs will come from independent power company projects to be connected to Apco lines and from the additional capacity for off-system sales, he said.
Opponents distributed a statement from W. Ross Adey, a researcher at Loma Linda University in California, who said it is increasingly clear that electromagnetic fields, such as near a high-voltage line, may constitute a potential health hazard.
But Brendan Ware, manager of electrical research for Apco's parent, American Electric Power Co., said he's seen "little or no scientific support" that the high-voltage line would be a health hazard.
"From what we know today, the facilities we propose to build will not be a threat to public health," he said.
Some information in this story came from The Associated Press.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB