Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 12, 1992 TAG: 9202120325
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
POWER-LINE PROTEST DROPPED
Jeff Janosko spent six summers at a Boy Scout camp in Floyd County in the shadow of a 765,000-volt electrical power line."It's like living next to a fire-breathing dragon," he recalled Tuesday. "The buzz can be heard a mile away. On damp nights they glow in the dark."
So Janosko was none too pleased when he got a letter from Appalachian Power Co. last fall telling him the house he had just built in northwest Roanoke County was in the likely path of another 765,000-volt power line.
He and others urged the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to join the fight against the power line, which would carry electricity 116 miles from Wyoming County, W.Va., to Botetourt County.
But after being assured by Apco executives that the power line wouldn't have an impact on the new regional landfill at Smith Gap, the supervisors voted 3 to 2 to withdraw the "notice of protest" the county filed with the State Corporation Commission last year.
"If they're not going to have an impact on the landfill, we don't have much to protest anyway," said Catawba Supervisor Ed Kohinke.
His vote in favor of withdrawing the notice of protest angered the power line opponents. Kohinke said he still opposes the power line "as a private citizen."
Janosko said he was "flabbergasted" by Kohinke's vote, even though the supervisors' opposition would have had little, if any, influence on the State Corporation Commission. The SCC will decide whether the power line is needed and approve a 1,000-foot-wide route. (The power line also needs the approval of the West Virginia Public Service Commission.)
"It would have sent a message," he said.
"Every voice raised in opposition lends weight to our position," said Marcy Johnson, who had told the supervisors earlier that the power line would be "a gigantic eyesore."
The power line would allow independent producers in West Virginia and Western Virginia to sell electricity to Virginia Power, which needs it for customers in fast-growing Northern Virginia and Tidewater. Apco would transport the electricity via the new power line. Because of that, opponents say that although their communities are being disrupted, they won't get any benefit.
But Apco says the power line also would guarantee that the utility has adequate electricity for its own customers in Virginia and West Virginia.
"This is a NIMBY issue - `Not in My Backyard,' " said advertising executive Bill Tanger, who has surprised some of his environmentalist friends by signing on with Apco as a consultant on the power line. Tanger was a founder of Friends of the Roanoke River and led the fight against the Spring Hollow Reservoir.
"Just as a landfill is necessary [and] a sewage treatment plant is necessary, so are power lines," he said.
John Huffman of the Red Lane Extension Civic League said, however, that Apco "is playing high rollers, and we're the ante."
The supervisors at first thought they had to decide this month whether to take a stand on the power line. But the SCC has extended the deadline to mid-May.
That prompted Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix to suggest the board have a work session later to discuss the issues raised Tuesday. Chairman Lee Eddy liked that idea. "I'd like a chance to think about it a little longer," he said.
But Kohinke pushed for a vote. Supervisors Bob Johnson and Harry Nickens joined him in voting to withdraw the notice of protest.
Janosko is an organizer of the Roanoke County Preservation League. It is part of ARCS, a coalition of opponents of the power line in 11 counties in Virginia and West Virginia.
The supervisors' action "will in no way slow down our efforts to fight this," he said.