Transource power line foes continue opposition

Opposition to a proposed power line in Washington County, Md., and Franklin County, Pa., will continue despite a settlement for another part of the project.

“We want this (proposed) line gone. ... This is just too damaging to Franklin County,” Karri Benedict said Tuesday.

Benedict is a member of Stop Transource Franklin County and what she called “an affected landowner.” If built, the power line would cross part of her Franklin County property, an 8-acre parcel that she said is a remnant of the family’s former dairy farm.

She said group members continue to meet, protest and write letters to officials expressing their opposition. The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 1 in the Franklin County Visitors Bureau office in downtown Chambersburg, Pa.

Transource is proposing to build 230-kilovolt overhead electric-transmission lines on 135-foot monopoles for 16 miles in York County, Pa., to Harford County, Md., and for 29 miles from Shippensburg, Pa., to Ringgold, Md.

The company announced Thursday that it had reached a settlement with some power line foes that offers an alternative route for the eastern leg of the project. That alternative path would largely follow existing infrastructure and rights of way for the eastern leg.

Using the existing right of way is what landowners on the eastern leg sought from the beginning, according to Benedict.

As for the western leg, Transource reported that it was able to parallel existing infrastructure for a significant part of the route.

That comparison to existing infrastructure is not apt, in Benedict’s view.

She said she understands the need for power lines. A line already crosses her property, she said, but it is a lower-intensity line on wooden poles, and the wires also provide service to residents of that area.

“We’re talking about a different level of beast” with the Transource proposal, she said.

Transource was hired by PJM Interconnection, which directs the operation of the region’s electrical grid, to build the lines to address what has been called “congestion” of the grid in certain areas. Transource proposed the two-leg approach, originally estimated to cost about $320 million.

Transource proposed the two-leg approach, originally estimated to cost about $320 million.

A study last year reported that the project would save $866.2 million in “congestion costs” over 15 years by providing lower-cost power to parts of Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

During regulatory proceedings, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Power Plant Research Program identified a possible alternative route for the eastern leg. The program is charged with ensuring that the state can meet demands for electricity “at reasonable costs, while protecting the state’s valuable natural resources.”

The alternative route announced Thursday “maximizes the use of existing rights-of-way and is supported by multiple project stakeholders including state agencies and local landowners,” Transource said in a news release.

Regulators in Maryland and Pennsylvania will consider the alternative route along with the original eastern path, the company said.

The western leg also is before state regulatory agencies.