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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994                   TAG: 9401060181
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

POWER LINE FOES STEP UP PAPER WAR

Opponents of a major power line plan to file papers with the State Corporation Commission today saying the project is environmentally and economically unsound.

Bill Bilenky, the line foes' lawyer, said Wednesday he will file an "exception" to the December recommendation by a state examiner that the commission approve Appalachian Power Co.'s project.

Apco's proposal to build a 115-mile transmission line from West Virginia to Cloverdale, stretching across Craig, Botetourt and Roanoke counties, is based on old data, Bilenky wrote.

Also, the hearing examiner's decision ignores a "preponderance of evidence," Bilenky said, that electromagnetic fields from such lines increase the likelihood of leukemia in children living near them.

Lastly, the examiner's own recommendation, made Dec. 2, said the line would mar the landscape in Craig County, but that the need for the line took precedence.

Apco has said the 765,000-volt line - the largest kind of transmission lines - is necessary to provide reliable power to its customers.

Although the opponents' arguments have been rejected by the state several times before, Bilenky said Wednesday that those decisions were made by the hearing examiner, Howard Anderson Jr.

Today's filing will go directly to the three-member commission which is under no deadline to make its final decision, Bilenky said.

by CNB