Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MCCOY FALLS LENGTH: Long
Van Anderson likes the view of the New River as it meanders through Giles County. But the Blacksburg landscape architect much prefers the view from the river.
It's a whole other world down there, sitting in a canoe and looking back up at the woods, fields and the occasional farm drifting by in a constantly shifting panorama of Southwest Virginia back country.
Around each twist and bend in the ancient river is a new view of mountain ridges or towering limestone cliffs. A pair of great blue herons might swoop off the bank and head down river.
It doesn't take an expert to appreciate the scenic beauty along this waterway. But sometimes, it does take a firsthand look.
Last week, Anderson led colleagues on a two-day float through Giles County downstream into West Virginia. These experts have been studying the river for months, plotting possible routes for Appalachian Power Co.'s proposed 765,000-volt transmission line. But they had never gotten close enough to dip a toe in the New.
``We did take crossings from the road view into account,'' said Bob Scott, with Woodward-Clyde Consultants. ``But not like this,'' he said, gazing at lush green ridges in the distance.
``We wanted them on the river so they could see it and feel it and smell it. And swim in it, which they did,'' said Anderson, who works with the nonprofit National Committee for the New River.
One of the motorized rafts provided by the National Park Service took a dunk on the second day, flipping four guys overboard like flapjacks, he said. They soaked two expensive cameras, lost two pairs of glasses and a detailed map.
But the experience of the trip apparently was not lost on the professionals.
``You've got a wilderness landscape here. A [power] line's not going to be good,'' said Scott, one of three people with Woodward-Clyde Consultants on the trip. The firm was hired by the U.S. Forest Service to assess how the power line would affect the natural and cultural resources along its roughly 100-mile path from West Virginia to Apco's substation in Cloverdale.
Also on the trip was Dave Wagner, the landscape architect for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Wagner has been coordinating much of the information involving visual impacts from the power line.
He went to Tennessee not long ago to look at transmission line towers that Apco had painted with a special finish that dulls the shine and blends in with the surroundings. He said Apco has talked about using that same finish on this project.
During last week's float, Wagner kept meticulous notes on his map, penciling in where the line would appear or disappear behind a ridge, and jotting down the location of houses, bridges and fields.
Other things the landscape architects looked for were places where the natural landscape was diverse and better able to absorb the visual impact of a power line. They noted a few places of man-made or natural disturbance in the view, but not many.
``I haven't seen a crossing here yet that isn't significant,'' Scott said.
Of the many alternatives being studied by the Forest Service, seven cross the New in Giles County, and several others would come close, probably within sight.
Almost since the power line was proposed five years ago, the river group has urged the Forest Service to thoroughly inventory the resources along the New before drawing lines on a map.
``Each crossing is at the worst place. They would have avoided these places had they known they were there,'' Anderson said.
But the agency has not done a full inventory, as it did for the Appalachian Trail, Anderson said, because the New flows through private land in Virginia. The Forest Service has jurisdiction to approve or disapprove the power line only on federal lands. The final authority for crossings on private land rests with the Virginia State Corporation Commission and its West Virginia counterpart.
Over the past month, Anderson has prepared a large-scale map of power line crossings that is more detailed than the Woodward-Clyde consultants had developed.
As the two rafts puttered down the New last week, he pointed out the cliffs, the historic sites, favorite tubing and fishing spots and many other resources that fall inside the mile-wide corridors, or within sight.
Anderson also noted that much of the 21-mile section of river from the county line to Bluff City was found by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to qualify for state scenic designation.
``You are going to impact the daylights out of that river'' if the power line is built, he said.
The National Committee for the New River has not taken an official position on the Virginia section of proposed power line, but is against any crossing of the New in West Virginia, where about 12 miles are being studied for federal designation as a wild and scenic river.
The group, founded in 1974, led the successful fight back then against another proposed Apco project - a hydroelectric dam along the New and its two forks in North Carolina that would have inundated about 42,000 acres.
Anderson, who joined the group only a couple of years ago, doesn't know how the power line battle will turn out. Nor does he know if last week's float will make any difference in the minds and on the maps of the consultants and experts studying the environmental impacts of the proposed power line.
But he does know that at least now, they've seen the view from the river.
by CNB