Harford community makes it clear Transource power lines are unwanted, unnecessary

The message was clear Saturday to members of the Maryland Public Service Commission: Deny Transource Energy’s Independence Energy Connection power line project.

More than 250 people from Maryland and Pennsylvania, including more than a dozen politicians from both states, attended the PSC’s public hearing at North Harford High School on the proposed project to build 45 miles of new power lines, upgrade existing substations and build new substations in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

“You are in a spot to make the right decision for the people,” Bill Paulshock told commission members during the three-hour hearing. “But what’s really bad about this is, you gave the opportunity for corporate America, for corporate energy, to use eminent domain to take people’s property for profit. That’s wrong and it needs to stop.”

There is enough space on the existing towers to carry the energy they want from one point to another for the next 50 years, he said.

“This needs to stop,” Paulshock said.

Two segments are proposed, one in the west between Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and Washington County in Maryland and one in the east between York County, Pennsylvania, and Harford. The nearly 16-mile eastern route includes 3.1 miles in Harford County and ends at the Conastone Substation in Norrisville, according to a Transource website about the IEC project.

The lines won’t benefit the residents of Harford County — it’s aimed at providing an average savings of $1.87 per family per year for residents in the Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia areas — yet they are the ones who will have to pay for it, Patricia Goss said.

“I find these minuscule savings to be absurd,” she said.

The savings won’t begin until the construction costs, which have increased from $330 million to nearly $500 million, “is fully paid for by the rate-holders. That’s us in this room,” she said.

“We, the rate-holders in Maryland and Pennsylvania, are paying for this unneeded and unwanted and dishonest project to deliver a minuscule energy savings two states away,” Goss said.

The project will “ruin” farms, property rights and values, rights to privacy and beauty, health and safety, and will cause “great detriment to their very piece of mind” if it is allowed to go through, Goss said.

Empty and half-empty utility poles already parallel or are near the proposed path of the new lines.

Ag preservation

The proposed lines will cut through five Harford farms that are in either a state or county agricultural preservation program.

According to their deed, property owners can’t build buildings or structures on their preserved properties that are not intended for agricultural use, Jody Edwards told the commission.

“Putting in this project, we can’t do something like this, but someone else is on our property? That seems wrong, and against everything this program was designed for,” Edwards said.

The structures are “horribly ugly, permanent, loud and noisy,” and she and her family will have to move to get away from it, without any compensation, but a “total gain for Transource.”

Families who put their farms into ag preservation don’t make the decision lightly, “because it’s forever,” said Janet Archer, president of the Harford County Farm Bureau, whose family has two properties in preservation.

“Allowing a project such as Transource is proposing a mockery to a really strong ag preservation programs at the county and state level,” Archer said. “I am expressing strong opposition to the IEC project. I ask that you do the right thing because putting this power line through our land is a forever decision on your part.”

More power lines are simply not necessary, Harold Burton, a 97-year-old retired family doctor, told commission members.

“My thought is that energy in the future is going to be sun and wind,” Burton said. “It’s an insult to people who have lived all their lives on a small piece of land earning a living.”

Indirect impact

Butch Schreck bought land in northern Harford County 22 years ago with power and gas transmission lines already on it. He knows the impact they have.

The power lines have grounding rods, and when he and his wife ride horses on their property, the horses with steel shoes can feel it.

Their friend with a prosthetic arm, who picked up wire fencing that was not connected to anything, was shocked, Schreck said.

“Residual electricity leaches into the ground,” he said. “It affects humans, too.”

Barbara Jacques, a 28-year resident of Harford County, whose granddaughter will be in kindergarten at North Harford Elementary next year, is concerned about the health impact of the lines.

According to her research, people living next to power lines have a higher risk of cancer and other health problems, she found on safespaceprotection.com, and a child’s risk of leukemia increase 67 percent, she cited from a 2005 artcile on webmd.com.

Transource statement

A statement from Transource Director Todd Burns was emailed to the Aegis Saturday afternoon regarding the public hearing.

“At Transource, we appreciate the PSC’s extensive public process as it aligns with our goals of open, transparent dialogue with the community,” Burns said in the statement.

“After extensive input, we believe we’ve proposed routes for the project that balance the need to reinforce the electric grid, while at the same time respecting land use in the community. We look forward to building the power line in a responsible way that ensures customers have access to low-cost and reliable electricity throughout the region.”

Next steps

The PSC will host a second public hearing on the Transource IEC project at 11 a.m. May 18 at Smithsburg High School in Washington County.

Written public comments referencing Case No. 9471 may also be submitted through May 29 to: Terry J. Romine, Executive Secretary, Maryland Public Service Commission; 6 St. Paul St., 16th Floor, Baltimore, Maryland 21202-6806.

Evidentiary hearings are scheduled for about two weeks beginning June 3. After that, briefs can be filed by both parties and the PSC will begin its deliberations. There is no deadline for members to reach a decision, according to PSC Communications Director Tori Leonard.