POWER-LINE HEARING DELAYED FROM APRIL 1

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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 16, 1993                   TAG: 9303160191
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
POWER-LINE HEARING DELAYED FROM APRIL 1
Appalachian Power Co. and opponents of its planned high-voltage power line from West Virginia agree on one thing: They want to postpone an April 1 hearing before the State Corporation Commission in Richmond.
New information on the proposed 765,000-volt line's impact on human health and on the karst topography near the West Virginia line was to have been presented.
Karst topography refers to a region made up of porous limestone containing deep fissures and underground caves and streams.
On Monday, Howard Anderson Jr., an SCC hearing examiner, granted Apco's request for a general continuance of the scheduled hearing because testimony of its expert geology witness, Henry W. Rauch, a West Virginia University professor, has not been completed. Also, two other witnesses cannot appear as scheduled. Rauch also is investigating the use of herbicides on the karst topography.
Samuel Milham Jr., of Olympia, Wash., an expert on health risks of electromagnetic fields near high-voltage lines, also will be scheduled to appear at a later date, according to Bill Bilenky, lawyer for opponents of the line. Milham had been asked to testify April 1 about new Swedish studies linking children's leukemia with high-voltage power fields.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB