Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070121
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Many of the routes traverse rural and residential areas, including New Castle, Newport and Blacksburg, previously untouched by Appalachian Power Co.'s proposal.
The utility, however, still likes its chosen path for a 115-mile power line that would carry 765,000 volts of electricity from Wyoming, W.Va., to Cloverdale, said Charles Simmons, vice president for construction and maintenance.
Simmons said it was too early to tell if any of the Forest Service's routes are feasible, adding that Apco settled on its preferred route in 1991 after lengthy study, because it did the least overall environmental damage on federal and private lands.
Apco must get federal approval because about 15 miles of the line would cross federal land. The U.S. Forest Service has jurisdiction over the national forest, the National Park Service over the Appalachian Trail, and the Corps of Engineers over the New River.
The Forest Service, designated the lead agency, developed the alternative routes as part of a draft environmental impact statement, due out in February. The routes were drawn in response to legal requirements, agency policy and public concerns raised during a series of community meetings and written comments, said Frank Bergmann, project coordinator for the Jefferson.
Recreation, historic districts, noise, aesthetics, wildlife habitat, water quality and human health are among the issues being studied.
The map shows preliminary corridors one mile wide. The power line's right of way would be 200 feet wide, Bergmann said.
One corridor clips the northern tip of Blacksburg near Toms Creek Road. Bergmann said that route satisfies a requirement to consider circumventing forest land when doing an impact statement. Another route parallels an existing power line, which meets another agency requirement.
But Bergmann suggested that the route near Blacksburg would probably be dropped. "That one is mostly the process part. We have to look at it," he said. "Going through population centers doesn't appear reasonable when there's other options."
Some citizens in the New River Valley, where many of the new corridors cross, have voiced concern over the Forest Service routes and have contacted groups already formed in opposition to Apco's project.
One opposition leader, Jeff Janosko of northwest Roanoke County, which Apco's preferred route would cross, has said that the more alternative routes there are, the more opponents there will be to fight it.
The maps were released in advance of four public meetings scheduled for next week, when the Forest Service will display the alternative routes and update the public on the impact statement.
The agency is studying the impacts of Apco's entire route on private lands as well as federal land but has no authority to decide where the power line would go across private land, the Appalachian Trail or the New River.
Because the forest is interspersed with private property, the map shows "hypothetical" connections from boundary to boundary, said Forest Supervisor Joy Berg.
by CNB