ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
People came to McCleary Elementary School like the rain outside Wednesday - in a slow but steady trickle. They were there to attend the first public meeting about the U.S. Forest Service's environmental study of a high-voltage power line that American Electric Power Co. has proposed.
At any one time during the first two hours of the four-hour meeting, uniformed Forest Service specialists outnumbered the public. They tended dozens of maps laid across tables and propped on easels, waiting to help people understand the study.
Many of the people who came were opponents of the power line - people such as Mary Stevers, whose 150-year-old family home near Mountain Lake in Giles County lies in the path of one of the alternate routes for the line.
Stevers, 68, was born in the old farmhouse. "I've always lived there," she said. She was at the meeting to try to learn the chances of the line coming her way. "I hate to see it go anywhere. It's so destructive to the land."
The meeting is the first of seven to be held in Virginia and West Virginia to draw public comment on a draft environmental impact statement for the proposed power line. AEP's preferred 115-mile path for the line from Wyoming County, W.Va., to Cloverdale would cross national forest land, the Appalachian Trail and a scenic portion of the New River being considered for federal protection.
The Forest Service and the National Park Service, which has jurisdiction over the trail, concluded in the five-year study that the 765-kilovolt power line, the largest of its type now being built, should not be allowed to cross federal lands. But AEP has said the line is needed to prevent blackouts or other power problems that could begin as early as 1998.
The comments from the meetings will be used to help prepare the Forest Service's final environmental statement, which will be completed after the State Corporation Commission and the West Virginia Public Service Commission rule on the need for the line and its location on private land.
Bill Damon, supervisor of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, said a possibility always exists that he might change his mind about barring the line from the national forest.
"The draft is based on information and analysis gathered [to this point]," he said.
In making his decision, he considered the line's effect on the environment and impact on the economy, the need for the power and other factors, Damon said.
But the three critical factors when considering a permit are the line's compatibility with the forest's management plan, the public interest and the possibility of alternative routes outside the forest, he said. The line wouldn't comply with the management plan, and it is possible to build it elsewhere.
"I didn't come to the conclusion [to ban the line] lightly," Damon said. "I could change my mind, but I would have to be convinced that my concerns would be adequately addressed."
Charles Spraker, a power-line opponent from Craig County's Sinking Creek Valley, said he came to the meeting because he wanted to meet Damon. "I wanted to congratulate him," Spraker said, "I feel like he's doing his job." Spraker's valley would be crossed by AEP's preferred route for the line.
If the line is built it will be like a 115-mile strip mine, kept clear with herbicides and service roads, Spraker said.
John Starnes, who came with his wife, Craig, to the Sinking Creek Valley from Virginia's Tidewater 30 years ago, said he'll never believe there's a need for the power line as long as AEP continues to advertise every day for people to buy heat pumps and use more electricity.
"This is big money wanting to make more money," Starnes said.
Power-line supporter Bill Tanger of Roanoke said he came to the meeting to see how the Forest Service was explaining the power-line project to the public. He also was interested in how many opponents, supporters and people with neutral views showed up.
Jan O'Nale, a line opponent from Craig County, said she wished the meeting had been held in a more traditional public-hearing format. If projects keep cutting the forest up into pieces, as the proposed power line would, pretty soon there will be nothing left, she said.
"People in Craig County, we don't want it developed; we want it to stay like it is."
The next public meeting in Virginia will be held Monday from 4 to 8 p.m. at Lord Botetourt High School in Daleville. Deadline for written comments to the Forest Service on the environmental study is Oct. 7.
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