ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610070049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
With a Monday deadline for public comment looming, the U.S. Forest Service has already received several hundred responses to its environmental study of American Electric Power Co.'s proposed high-voltage power line, the agency said.
The study, which was released in June, contains a preliminary decision by Bill Damon, supervisor of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, that the line should not be allowed to cross public lands as AEP has proposed.
"The environmental consequences of this proposal are simply too great for me to accept on public lands," Damon said, when the study was unveiled.
Frank Bergmann, project coordinator for the Forest Service, estimated the agency had received about 600 to 700 comments by midday Friday.
Among those responding are members of the Appalachian Trail Conference, a voluntary, nonprofit group that manages the Georgia-to-Maine trail. AEP's proposed route for the line would cross a section of the Appalachian Trail in Craig County.
The AEP line is the first major public works project proposed to cross the Appalachian Trail since it was designated part of the National Parks System in 1968, said Jim Hutchings of Hardy, southern vice chair for the trail conference. The Forest Service's final decision on the line will set a precedent for future projects, he said.
In a recent letter to conference members, Hutchings urged that they write the Forest Service, asking the agency to stick by its preliminary decision to keep the line off public lands.
The power line with towers up to 187 feet tall and 135 feet wide "would have no small impact on the Appalachian Trail experience," Hutchings wrote.
The Trail Conference is not opposed to construction of the power line, if the public needs it, Hutchings said. But the group believes the line should be routed through a spot where existing power lines or highways already cross the trail, he said.
Trail conference members and business interests are among those who have been well represented in the comments that have been received so far, Bergmann said. A good percentage of the responses have supported Damon's preliminary decision, he said.
AEP plans to submit its own response Monday to the environmental study, company spokesman Tom Ayers said Friday. The Forest Service will consider all comments postmarked or received by Monday, Bergmann said.
AEP's proposed route for the 765,000-volt power line runs 115 miles from Wyoming County, W.Va., to an AEP substation at Cloverdale in Botetourt County.
The AEP route would require the line to cross about 12 miles of the Jefferson National Forest. It would also cross the Appalachian Trail as it runs through the forest on Sinking Creek Mountain in Craig County.
The Forest Service's draft environmental study examined AEP's proposed route and 12 alternative routes for the line. The federal government has an interest in the line because AEP's proposal would cross the forest, the trail, and a section of the New River in West Virginia, being considered for federal protection as a scenic river.
The Forest Service has said it will not issue a final environmental statement and decision on the power line until Virginia's and West Virginia's public service commissions make final decisions on whether the line is needed. Those state decisions are months, if not years away.
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