Power Line Proposal Looms Over Communities

Opponents Out in Force At Dominion Meeting

Hundreds of environmentalists, property owners and slow-growth activists piled into the Middleburg Community Center on Tuesday evening to learn more about a high-voltage power line planned for parts of Loudoun, Fauquier and Prince William counties, a plan that has been met with vehement opposition in growth-resistant northwestern Virginia.

They hunched over a table-size map to look for neighborhoods, churches and historic sites that could be bisected by one of the proposed routes for the 500,000-volt line, which Dominion Virginia Power Co. says it has no choice but to build to prevent rolling blackouts starting in 2011.

Participants in the meeting studied scale drawings of the 150-foot steel-lattice towers that would support the cables. And in most cases, they lamented what they said was the latest fight to protect their corner of Virginia from the creeping development from the east.

"The reason I moved away from the Fairfax area is to get away from all this idiotic development," said Kevin Rose, 51, who lives in Delaplane in Fauquier County and arrived early at the meeting, which was hosted by Dominion.

On the map, Rose pointed out the small cluster of roads where he lives and shook his head. He said that from his home, he can see many miles in every direction, virtually guaranteeing that he will be able to see the power line no matter which of the proposed routes it follows.

"Right now, all I see is the Northern Virginia hunt country countryside," said Rose, a program manager for a defense contractor. "I can see the lights of Leesburg."

It was the first of three meetings that Dominion scheduled to communicate directly with residents about the plan and get their feedback on ways to minimize any negative effect on the countryside. The second session was scheduled for last night in Marshall; a third has been set for Dec. 7 in Manassas.

This week, the company released a map showing several possible routes for the line, which would bring electricity from points west to the Loudoun substation in Arcola. In the next few months, the company will choose one route to submit with its application to the State Corporation Commission.

Although none of the paths being considered cuts through areas legally protected from development by conservation easements, critics point out that the line will snake through or near historic towns and pristine areas that do not enjoy such protection.

"Easement landowners will breathe a sigh of relief" over that, said Bob Lee, executive director of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which holds the trust to about 80,000 acres under easements in northwest Virginia.

But, Lee added, "easements are only part of the fabric of the landscape. There are Civil War sites, scenic byways and a lot of exceptional lands that for whatever reason are not under easements."

The most strident opposition has come from the Piedmont Environmental Council, a slow-growth group that has urged residents to attend the Dominion meetings but not to be "tricked into indicating any route preference at all."

The PEC contends that the extra power that the line will carry is not needed except on a few high-demand days in the summer and winter -- demand that could be diminished by offering incentives for energy saving. The group thinks that Dominion plans to profit from the line by bringing cheap Midwestern electricity into the Eastern grid.

Dominion officials have said that the company would not unduly profit from the line and that they are legally bound to build more capacity to manage demand that they expect will increase dramatically in the next five years.

At Tuesday night's meeting, PEC supporters were out in force, many wearing cherry-red T-shirts showing a steel pylon accented with dollar signs, jutting up from behind the silhouette of the state of Virginia. Others wore stickers that said "Stop the Towers," distributed by another anti-power-line group.

One hour into the three-hour session, Dominion officials estimated that about 300 people had shown up. Despite the large turnout of opponents, company officials said the meeting was a success.

"This is exactly what we wanted and exactly what we needed," said Jim Norvelle, a company spokesman. "Some people are just letting us know they don't want the line, period. But there are others who are saying . . . 'How can we work with you on this?' "

Residents were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The form asked, among other things, whether they preferred a particular route and whether any locations of importance appeared to be in the path of the line. They also were asked to rate their priorities, such as preserving historic sites and minimizing costs.

In an e-mail Tuesday morning, the PEC told its supporters to "reject all of these alternatives until real energy solutions are offered."