Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993 TAG: 9307160092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLUEFIELD, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
The delay may result in more chances of brownouts by 1998, although the company still hopes to have the line in operation by then, Apco spokesman Richard Burton said Thursday.
Apco held the briefing for the news media.
With good weather, and some luck, the line could be built in three to four years, he said. "If it comes about in a reasonable time frame . . . we probably could still get it in service by 1998. Late 1998, maybe."
But before the utility can turn the first shovel of dirt, Burton said, it needs approval from the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the West Virginia Public Service Commission, and the Jefferson National Forest, through which the line would pass.
The project also faces tough opposition from citizens groups in both states concerned about its environmental and aesthetic impacts.
Apco wants to build a 765,000-volt line from Oceana, W.Va., to Cloverdale, near Roanoke. The company says the line is needed to meet projected demand for electricity by the end of the century.
In May, the West Virginia agency dismissed Apco's application, citing a lack of technical information. The commission wants detailed data on the line's overall impact within five miles on either side of Apco's alternate route, Burton said.
A joint team of researchers at Virginia Tech and West Virginia University, which conducted the original routing study for Apco, are putting together the new information.
"I don't think it'll be a year, but I really don't know" how long it will take, said Ben Johnson, a Tech landscape architect professor working on the project.
Since the original study in 1990, roughly 3,000 pieces of information on recreational, historic, archaeological and other sites in West Virginia have turned up, Johnson said.
Each one has to be verified, analyzed with other data, and then compiled by computer onto a map - a "very time-consuming" task, he said.
In Virginia, Apco's application is pending before the State Corporation Commission. The agency has scheduled a Sept. 14 hearing to review issues raised by opponents of the project, including:
Possible health effects of electromagnetic fields.
Herbicide use along the line's corridor.
Potential effects of construction and operation of the line on karst topography - characterized by caves, underground streams and limestone formations frequently found in this region.
The Jefferson National Forest is also reviewing the project and plans to have a draft environmental impact statement ready by September 1994.
Burton said there's no clear answer as to how the delays will affect service later this decade. Apco said several years ago the line should be running by 1998 to meet projected demand, which grew 80 percent in the past 20 years.
The company has initiated a number of conservation programs that may ease the projected demand, he said.
"If enough customers do enough things to conserve [energy], then the risk of brownouts may not come as soon as it otherwise would," he said.
Apco has already spent, or has committed to spend, about $4 million on studies and regulatory paperwork for the power line, which is expected to cost $244 million. So far the project exists only on paper.
That $4 million cost eventually will be spread among Apco rate payers, as well as other customers of American Electric Power, Apco's parent company, Burton said.
Apco customers have not seen that cost reflected in their bills so far, he said.
by CNB