Power Line Could Undo Open-Land Conservation

Soaring Usage Puts 3 N.Va. Counties in Path

Dominion Virginia Power is planning to build a high-voltage power line that could stretch across parts of Prince William, Fauquier and Loudoun counties, an answer to the region's growing energy needs that has raised fears of spoiling some of the state's most fiercely protected open land.

It would be part of a 240-mile, 500,000-volt electricity line from southwestern Pennsylvania to a substation near the Loudoun village of Aldie to serve Northern Virginia, where the addition of tens of thousands of residents the past decade has pushed demand up by 40 percent. It is also one of about 10 similar proposals across the country that could test a new federal law giving power companies far-reaching authority to take land if their services are deemed vital to national interests.

The area Dominion is considering for local portions of the line includes thousands of acres of private property, nature preserves and historic districts as well as a half-dozen Civil War battlefields and about 80,000 acres of forest and farmland protected from development through conservation easements. Cutting across them would be hundreds of 15-story towers, with cables stretching in between.

"People have spent millions of dollars protecting this area, and now someone is saying, 'Well, we don't have many houses out here -- let's throw a power line across it,' " said John Staelin, chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Clarke County, which also could be bisected by the line. "That doesn't make sense to me."

Dominion, which serves most of Northern Virginia, says a new line is needed to satisfy the region's enormous appetite for power, which it expects to grow by an additional 8 percent over the next five years, when the line would go into service.

"The transmission lines that we have right now are getting loaded up during real hot days and real cold days," said John D. Smatlak, vice president for electric transmission for Dominion. "We will have severe overloads beginning in 2011, and we are at risk of having blackouts during peak days."

The increased pressure on the system is caused by the addition of thousands of new homes each year in the region and the proliferation of electricity-hungry high-tech companies that gravitate to the area, he said. The line is expected to provide enough electricity to power 275,000 homes and will help reduce stress on the electricity systems across the mid-Atlantic region, Smatlak said.

Dominion officials have not chosen a route, but they pledged to try to minimize the impact of the line and work with conservation groups.

Area environmental groups, which for years have fought to protect open space and scenic vistas, are concerned that the fields and forests of northwestern Virginia will be permanently marred.

"The bottom line is you couldn't have picked a worse place to build a highly visible power line," said Christopher G. Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council, a slow-growth advocacy group. "What Dominion wants to do is ram a very intrusive industrial power line right through the center of that area."

The group hasn't suggested alternatives because it questions the region's needs for greater power capacity. It has hired a consultant to study the demand and, in the meantime, is mobilizing area residents and other organizations against the plan for the line.

What happens with the power line could have consequences beyond Virginia if Dominion chooses to test a new federal law giving it power to bypass measures that protect private property.