Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
With I-73 now at a simmer rather than a boil, the group has an ally in Giles County and a new cause: alternative routes for a proposed 765-kilovolt Appalachian Power Co. transmission line that could pass through Bland, Giles, Pulaski or Montgomery counties.
One of those routes could run through Newport and Blacksburg. Details have not been released.
Back in the winter, the group - organized as the informed citizens' action network, or ICAN - felt shut out by the state Department of Transportation and ignored by the county government, which endorsed a path through Montgomery County for the Michigan-to-South Carolina highway.
The residents - many from the Mount Tabor area and Catawba Valley - felt they hadn't had a chance to have their say. Their work brought hundreds of people out to local government meetings in Montgomery County, Blacksburg and Giles County.
ICAN now is raising the red flag, or at least a banner with a large question mark, on the power line. It is holding a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Slusser's Chapel community room on Mount Tabor Road just north of Blacksburg.
The topic will be an explanation of the U.S. Forest Service's "scoping process" to inform the public about high-voltage power-line corridors through the Jefferson National Forest. There also will be talk of how, at least in ICAN's opinion, the people of Montgomery, Pulaski, Bland and Giles counties may be shut out of that process.
"There's been a lot that's taken place without people realizing the long-term implications," said ICAN spokeswoman Robin Boucher.
ICAN has joined with another citizens' group that has been involved in the fight against the power line for some time: Citizens Organized for Protection of the Environment, or COPE, based in Newport.
The groups faxed a letter to the Forest Service on Friday asking that Jefferson National Forest officials take two steps:
Reopen the "scoping," or public comment, period for the four counties for three to six months to give people there the same chance to comment as in Craig County and others included in the 115-mile West Virginia to Cloverdale route preferred by Apco.
Withhold the release of maps and other details of the alternative routes for the power-line corridors, because they were formulated without consulting with the people in the counties that would be affected.
The activist groups asked the Forest Service to respond by Tuesday evening, when Newport residents were to meet with Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, in a community session expected to focus on the power-line issue.
A Jefferson National Forest spokeswoman said staff members were working on a response but were unsure if they would be able to finish it on time. The groups' original letter came in after the close of business Friday, she said, and a revised version arrived by fax just Tuesday morning.
The Forest Service already has scheduled four public meetings next week to display the alternatives and to update people on the environmental review of the power line.
The nearest meeting for Montgomery, Pulaski and Bland residents will be next Wednesday at Narrows High School. The other meetings, all from 7 to 9 p.m., will be next Tuesday at New Castle High School, July 14 at Union (W.Va.) High School and July 15 at Waiteville (W.Va.) Community Center.
Federal law requires the National Forest's environmental impact statement for the power line to include Apco's proposed route, an alternative that doesn't pass through the Jefferson National Forest and a range of other alternatives that do.
News of the alternatives came with the announcement of a delay in the release of the draft environmental impact statement until February, which angered utility executives.
The corridors under consideration as alternatives are in the areas of Mechanicsburg/Dismal Creek in Bland and Giles; Narrows/Pearisburg; Newport/Blacksburg; Lindside, W.Va.; New Castle; and Paint Bank/Waiteville, W.Va.
by CNB