ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Supporters and opponents of American Electric Power Co.'s plans for a high-voltage power line are gearing up for a series of public meetings that begins this week.
The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comment on its draft environmental study of the line.
That study led to the decision by Bill Damon, supervisor of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, to ban the line from crossing the national forest. The decision is not final.
Bill Tanger of Roanoke, a leader of the Coalition for Energy and Economic Revitalization, a group of power-line supporters, said that group will do "informational work" in advance of the meetings.
The coalition, based in Charleston, W.Va., receives funding from AEP and claims a membership of 272,770 people.
The Forest Service may have ignored a responsibility to pick an acceptable route for the line, Tanger said. He also questions the agency's decision to look only at the environmental issues without considering whether the public needs the electricity.
Tanger indicated the line's supporters will stress the need for the line, even though the Forest Service has said determining the need is not its role.
For three years now, peak demand for electricity in the area to be served by the line has exceeded AEP's forecasts, Tanger said.
"The thing that really galls some of our supporters," he said, is the continued growth in demand for electricity in the counties where opposition to the line has been strong.
Cliff Shaffer, a leader of Citizens Organized to Protect the Environment, a group of Giles County residents opposed to the line, said opponents are encouraging anyone who is interested to attend one of the Forest Service's public meetings. "We would like to see a good turnout," he said.
Opponents, such as Shaffer, say the line is not needed. They also say the electricity it would carry could be provided in some other way, such as through technological improvements to existing power lines. They argue that the line would cause too much damage to the environment.
The role that AEP employees play in the Forest Service meetings will be scrutinized by opponents, Shaffer said.
At public meetings held by the agency in 1994, AEP employees stood beside Forest Service employees conducting the meetings, intimidating not only the public but also the Forest Service, he said.
"If they do it this time, it's really out of line," Shaffer said.
Tom Ayers, a spokesman for AEP, said he expected the company to direct its comments toward the environmental study rather than the issue of need for the line.
If the Forest Service's ruling stands, he said, it could have a broader implication for other public works projects, such as roads or pipelines.
The first of seven public meetings in Virginia and West Virginia will be held Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. at McCleary Elementary School at New Castle in Craig County.
Dave Olsen, a Forest Service spokesman, said the meetings will give people a chance to ask questions of the agency's employees who wrote the environmental study.
The meetings won't be like a traditional public hearing, in which members of an audience rise to ask questions, he said. A recorder will be available to take public comments, but the Forest Service recommends that people gather information at the meetings, then mail their comments to Damon before Oct.7.
Damon's decision is based on the draft study and is not the Forest Service's final decision, the agency noted. A final environmental statement will not be issued until Virginia's State Corporation Commission and West Virginia's Public Service Commission rule on the need for the line.
American Electric Power - operating at that time as Appalachian Power Co. - first filed an application with the SCC for permission to build the 765-kilovolt line in 1991.
In December, the SCC said in a preliminary ruling that the line may be needed by AEP to provide reliable service to its customers in Virginia and southern West Virginia. Public comment on that ruling was to have ended Thursday, but AEP won an extension until Dec.1.
The company has said it plans to use the additional time to convince the Forest Service it was wrong in banning the line from the forest.
State law says the SCC must consider both the need for a major power line and its route. Opponents have argued the Forest Service's decision means AEP's application is dead.
AEP selected a 115-mile route from the end of an existing line near Oceana, W.Va., to a power substation at Cloverdale as the least environmentally damaging. The company's proposed 200-foot-wide path for the line would traverse a section of the New River in West Virginia being considered for federal protection, enter Virginia at Potts Mountain in Craig County and cross more than 37 miles of Virginia, including the Appalachian Trail and 12 miles of national forest.
The Forest Service studied AEP's preferred route and several alternatives.
"Each of the alternatives we studied poses long-term and significant impacts to the lands I have the responsibility to manage for the American people," Damon said when he released the results of the study in June.
"The environmental impacts of this proposal, both today and in the future, are simply too great for me to accept on the national forest," he said.
Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality will coordinate the comments of state agencies and local governments in Craig, Botetourt, Giles, Pulaski and Roanoke counties regarding the study. The state is asking that they consider, in particular, the consequences of building the line entirely on private land.
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: Powert line public meetings.by CNB