PPL electric route opposed

Utility public hearing is expected

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA - Residents of Saw Creek Estates, an upscale development in Lehman Township in Pike County, are opposed to the proposed power line extension that is planned to cross Pike County and the Delaware River near Bushkill Falls.

In Saw Creek, over 147 homes will be severely affected, according to Pike County Commissioner Harry Forbes. “Discussion of this project is far from over,” he said.

“About another 3,000 homeowners are saying that the towers will adversely affect their property values,” Forbes said.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PPUC) is expected to hold a public meeting on this project some time in the near future, Forbes said.

Senator Arlen Specter, who appeared on Monday, October 20 in the Pike County Administration Building for a routine town hall meeting with constituents, was approached by members of the Saw Creek Estates who urged that he support a public hearing of the PPUC on this issue.

“The senator is supportive of the idea of giving people in the affected communities an opportunity to speak their minds to the utility commission,” said Kate Kelly, spokesperson for the senator.

In Saw Creek, a small transmission line runs through the development. To residents, it’s an unattractive line, with towers that are 85 feet high that carry 230,000 volts. The current line has not been opposed by residents, according to the Saw Creek website. This new line, however, which would replace the old one, would carry 500,000 volts with towers reaching 200 feet, according to the PPL website.

Adding insult to injury, Saw Creek does not get its electricity from PPL but from Metropolitan Edison.

Peter Derrenbacker, the Saw Creek general manager, did not respond to an email and a phone call.

At public meetings, skeptics of the project have questioned the need for a 500-kilovolt line, part of a $1.2 billion multi-state project to move electricity from Susquehanna nuclear plant in Luzerne County in Salem Township to energy-hungry consumers in the mid-Atlantic grid.

PJM, a Valley Forge-based, regional transmission organization, coordinates the movement of electricity in Pennsylvania and a dozen other states. PJM maintains the line is necessary to relieve overloads that could happen as early as 2013.

PPL aims to have the line in service in 2012.

The estate residents are worried that, even if the PPUC opposes the project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) could use eminent domain to override the state agency, Forbes said.

Eminent domain is a seldom used power that allows a government to take private property for a public purpose, even if the property owners object. Whether it could apply to an issue like this is not clear.

PPL representatives did not respond to calls in preparing this article.