The year in pictures: Loudoun County

Dominion Virginia Power's Alison Kaufmann explains the company's new Smart Meter to Bill Olson of Woodridge, who owns property in Loudoun County. The two were at an open house sponsored by Dominion at the Dulles South Multipurpose Center in South Riding in July to hear public comments on plans to remove a 115,000-volt line and replace it with a double-circuit 230,000-volt line on a 9.3-mile stretch through Loudoun, Fauquier and Prince William counties. Dominion officials say the project is needed by 2012 to avoid outages in Loudoun, but at hearings this summer, residents and environmentalists questioned the need.