ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602040012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
AEP OFFICIALS HOPE the U.S. Forest Service approves its plan to build a 115-mile, 765-kilovolt cable between Oceana, W.Va., and Cloverdale in Botetourt County.
An American Electric Power Co. Inc. official says he now has hopes that the U.S. Forest Service will complete its environmental study of the company's proposed high-voltage power line by the middle of the year.
AEP Vice President Charles Simmons bases that hope on his meeting Thursday in Washington with Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Jim Lyons, who oversees the Forest Service. It was Simmons' second meeting with Lyons in two weeks.
Simmons said the commitment he got from Lyons probably was not as firm as he would have liked, but he said he generally was pleased with the results of the meeting, which also was attended by Joe Vipperman, former president of Appalachian Power Co. and now AEP's executive vice president for energy delivery. Apco, which started the power line project, changed its name to that of its parent, AEP, on Jan. 1 when Columbus, Ohio-based AEP reorganized.
In an interview after his first meeting with Simmons on Jan. 17, Lyons said he had only then become aware of the delays in producing the first draft of the environmental study. The Forest Service was originally supposed to finish the report in July 1992; it has pushed back the due date six times.
Simmons said it was evident Thursday that Lyons had been asking the Forest Service questions about the status of the study and that he had become more knowledgeable about the project. Simmons said he and Vipperman were assured by Lyons that the Forest Service would do everything it could to get the job done on a timely basis.
AEP plans to build a 115-mile, 765-kilovolt power line between Oceana, W.Va., and Cloverdale in Botetourt County. The company said the line is needed to prevent power shortages in its service territory by 1998, but previous regulatory delays have made it impossible to build the line by then.
The line's proposed path would cross the national forest, the Appalachian Trail and a scenic section of the New River that is being considered for federal protection. The Forest Service has been studying the impact of the line on water supplies, wildlife habitat, residential areas and other resources.
Virginia's State Corporation Commission issued a temporary order in December finding that the power line is needed but asking AEP to produce three more studies. The commission gave AEP 60 days to report how the new line would fit in with others on the East Coast power grid and how the line would be used in the more competitive power industry of the future. It gave the company 90 days to study alternate routes for the line that would avoid environmental harm to Roanoke's Carvins Cove reservoir and the Sinking Creek Valley of Craig County.
Simmons said the commission has agreed to AEP's request for 90 days to produce all three reports, making them due March 12.
Opponents of the power line were encouraged by the SCC's request for the additional studies. Simmons, however, said AEP remains convinced that the company's preferred route for the line is the best possible and the one with the least environmental impact. But he said the company is "not married" to any particular route.
AEP also must apply to the West Virginia Public Service Commission for permission to build the 80-mile stretch of line through that state. AEP needs the Forest Service report because West Virginia wants to see the report before it considers AEP's application. Because of its experience with past delays, AEP will not apply in West Virginia before it has the Forest Service report in hand, Simmons said.
Before traveling to Washington this week, Simmons said he planned to tell Lyons that the delays in the report were costing AEP customers money and keeping many people worried about whether or not they would be affected by the power line.
The Forest Service blamed the most recent delay in the environmental study, which it said last fall would be finished by mid-April, on the federal budget impasse and resulting government shutdown and the severe winter weather.
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