Landowners Fear Ruin From Power Line Route

Dominion successfully negotiates with property holders about 97 percent of the time, Smatlak said, although critics argue that landowners often simply acquiesce to avoid going to court.

The company does not expect to take anyone's home for the project, Smatlak said, and in some cases Dominion will offer landowners damages to compensate for other impacts to property values.

But it is rare that landowners are happy with such settlements, said John Foote, a Virginia land-use lawyer.

"It's an emotional process for most people," said Foote, "because here you have a [big company] coming in and saying, 'We are going to take your property, and there is nothing you can do about it.' "

It will be especially unwelcome on the western edge of Northern Virginia, where vistas will be diminished by unsightly industrial towers, Sheedy said.

"When you're out in the country and you're selling property, what you're selling is the open space and the bucolic views and the history," Sheedy said. "Running power lines through an area like this is just devastating."

Dominion says it has no choice but to put up the lines. Officials say that the company's power grid is growing dangerously congested and that demand will outstrip capacity by 2011. The only way to avoid the possibility of rolling blackouts is to add more lines and bring more power from the Midwest, they say. And the most efficient route, they say, is through parts of Northern Virginia.

That is little consolation for Gene and Deborah Bedell, who invested in their 223-acre Markham farm as their retirement plan. They pulled their house off the market last week after learning that one of the proposed routes slices through their back yard. No one, their real estate agent told them, would buy it if they knew that it could have a power line looming over it.

"Not along it, not around it, but directly through our property," said Deborah Bedell, 54. "It's like finding out your 401(k) is in Enron stock."

They will have to put off their plans to retire to a warmer climate until the process plays out, which could be years, they said.

Opposition to the project is fierce. The Piedmont Environmental Council, a vociferous opponent of the power line, plans to hold a news conference today during which U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and actor Robert Duvall, who lives in Fauquier, are expected to speak.

Eaton, a horse trainer and riding teacher, says she won't be able to afford her mortgage payments without selling part of her land, and she believes she will go bankrupt as a result.

The farm had been her dream, Eaton said. She had looked for years for a property where she could care for her clients' horses, give riding lessons and invite drug-addicted and mentally ill women to enjoy the therapeutic effects of being near horses through a local equine-assisted psychotherapy program.

She could help pay off the debt from the property and invest in her business, she calculated, by selling three subdivided plots for about $300,000 apiece.

Then she learned from a friend that the properties she planned to sell were in one of the proposed paths for the line.

"She said, 'Cammie, it's a direct hit,' " Eaton said. "I couldn't deal with it. I couldn't even ask questions. I had planned it all so well. My business plan was rock-solid."