ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996               TAG: 9603180022
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 

"NEW" POWER LINE ROUTE

American Electric Power Co. this week filed a new proposed route for a 765,000-volt power line that would pass through 24 miles of Giles County and 12 miles of the pristine Craig Creek Valley in Montgomery County en route from West Virginia to Cloverdale. AEP says it continues to prefer its original route proposal, which avoids Giles and Montgomery altogether. But it filed the alternative at the request of the State Corporation Commission, which gave the company preliminary approval in December and, along with a similar panel in West Virginia, holds the key to final approval.

The path

From west to east, the route in Giles would roughly parallel an existing 138,000-volt power line called the Glen Lyn-Hancock line, and in Montgomery it would match up with the 345,000-volt Matt Funk-Cloverdale line. The major variations would be near Glen Lyn, where the new route enters the county farther south of town than the current 138,000-volt line, and near Newport, where it would make a five-mile dart to the north. That would move the line away from the village, but would push it further into Clover Hollow.

The politics

The Giles County Board of Supervisors last month opposed the line passing through its domain. The Montgomery County supervisors last addressed the issue in September 1994 when they voted 5-1 in support of AEP's original route through Craig, Roanoke and Botetourt counties, after rejecting pleas from power-line opponents for a stronger stand.

What's next

The new corridor isn't that new. It's one of the many alternatives under environmental review by the U.S. Forest Service. That agency's impact statement is due in June. If the Forest Service ends up rejecting AEP's preferred route, and if the SEC accepts this "new" Giles-Montgomery alternative, it could very well end up being the line's final route.

Source: March 12 filing with State Corporation Commission

LENGTH: Short :   42 lines
ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC:  Map. color.