SCC TO HEAR REPORT ON RISK OF POWER LINE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 27, 1993                   TAG: 9302270178
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SCC TO HEAR REPORT ON RISK OF POWER LINE
The State Corporation Commission will reopen its hearing on Appalachian Power Co.'s planned high-voltage power line April 1 for a controversial report on health risks and a geological survey.
Apco and power-line opponents will square off on the impact of Swedish studies reporting increased incidence of leukemia among children exposed to electromagnetic fields associated with high-voltage lines. The utility and the opponents strongly disagree on the results of the study.
The health issue was discussed at SCC hearings last summer on Apco's plan to build a 765,000-volt line from Wyoming County, W.Va., to Cloverdale.
The expert speaker for the opponents will be Dr. Samuel Milham, an Olympia, Wash., epidemiologist, who is working on a San Diego court case and several utility cases in which consumers claim high electromagnetic risks.
Ken Schrad of the SCC said his agency wants "the most updated information possible" in such a case. The April 1 hearing will start at 10 a.m. in the SCC's new Tyler Building in Richmond.
Bill Bilenky, lawyer for opponents in Roanoke, Craig and Giles counties, said the Swedish studies for the first time "showed a direct relationship between greater risks of cancer and greater EMF strength. That's why the company is fighting it so hard."
At some point, Bilenky predicted, the conclusions of the studies will be accepted and utilities "will face incredible liabilities. There is a risk."
Milham is "preeminently qualified to speak to the issues of danger" of high-voltage lines, said Ellen Coleman, a leader in the Citizens for the Preservation of Craig County. "He's a national player" in the EMF-cancer risk field, she said.
Charles Simmons, Apco vice president, said the Swedish studies "don't rise to the level claimed by the opponents. They don't bring anything significantly new."
The studies "have internal contradictions. They don't establish any causative links as Mr. Bilenky says," Simmons said.
Dr. Phil Kuebler, a Columbus, Ohio, oncologist who works for Apco's parent, American Electric Power Co., has contended that the Swedish report of a higher risk of childhood leukemia at homes near power lines was based on too small a number - 38 cases.
Experts for Apco and the opponents disagreed on the health effects of power lines at SCC hearings in Richmond last year.
The April 1 hearing, expected to last more than one day, also will consider testimony on the anticipated impact of the proposed line on the delicate karst topography near the West Virginia line. Expert testimony will be given by Henry Rauch, a West Virginia University professor.
Rauch is expected to say that Apco can build and maintain a transmission line without creating problems if the karst topography is handled with sensitivity, Simmons said.
Opponents also have asked the SCC for a hearing on Apco's request for approval of six pilot programs testing energy conservation and electricity load management. Bilenky said his clients see the conservation tests as "pretty inadequate."
The tests, requested in October, are part of Apco's load forecasts and long-range planning which assume construction of the 765-kv line, Simmons said. Apco is the first Virginia utility to apply for approval of the test, "but we've been doing this [conservation] a whale of a long time," Simmons added.
Approval of most of the conservation tests has been given Apco by the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB