High-voltage power lines proposed for river corridor

Spokesman says lines will not be buried

By FRITZ MAYER

ALBANY — A company called New York Regional Interconnect Inc. (NYRI) last week announced plans to build a high voltage power line from Utica to Orange County. The project has been described as being comparable to the controversial Marcy South lines that were erected in Sullivan County in the 1980s.

NRYI has purchased, from a company called Pegasus, the rights to run utilities along the Norfolk Southern rail lines in Sullivan County and also along other existing energy rights of way. NYRI has proposed two different paths for the $1 billion project: one would take the lines along the Upper Delaware River, the other would take the lines further into the interior, reportedly along the path of the Millennium Pipeline.

Pegasus proposed a similar project in 2003. The President of Pegasus was Richard Muddiman, who is now the president of NYRI. William Douglass, executive director of the Upper Delaware Council (UDC), said when the previous project was being considered, Muddiman gave a verbal commitment to the UDC that if it was approved, the power lines would be buried underground. But last week, Robert Malecki, manager of regulatory affairs with NYRI, said the lines would not be buried because that would be too expensive.

Douglass has said that he’s not convinced that either of the two routes are the best choices for the power lines, which would carry electricity from the middle and western part of the state, where energy supplies are plentiful, to New York City and its suburbs, where supplies are tight and bottlenecks often occur.

Douglass said the UDC would lobby to prevent the lines from being installed along the river, and if the lines are installed there, the UDC will try to insure that any damage to the river is adequately mitigated.

But the UDC is not alone in its opposition to the projected paths. One of the routes takes the lines through the middle of the city of Norwich in Chenango County. The Norwich supervisor, David Law, said that’s a very controversial proposition.

Malecki said NYRI executives plan to file paperwork with the state’s Public Service Commission in May. The company is required to provide at least two routes for the project. Malekci said his firm is waiting to hear public comment before it decides to name one as its preferred route. The company expects the permitting process to take two years, and hopes to have the lines operational by 2011.

The law firm of former New York City mayor Rudy Guiuliani is representing NYRI in Washington.

A map of the project, and more information is available at the company’s website at www.nyri.us.