Fight shapes up over VELCO power line

Cheapest isn't necessarily best. That's the message being delivered to the Vermont Electric Power Company by residents of Grand Isle County, who are vowing to fight for their view of Lake Champlain and the high peaks of the Adirondacks. Proponents of the underwater line claim that even if all of VELCO's figures are correct, it will add just 24 cents per $100 electric bill. They have already received backing in their battle from Governor Howard Dean who in October was sharply critical of VELCO's decision to recommend making a "temporary" overhead power line permanent.

The issue is an electrical transmission line, called PV20, that carries power from the New York Power Authority into the Vermont power grid. For 38 years, that vista looking south from the Sand Bar Bridge has been obstructed by transmission lines, orange visibility globes, and power poles anchored by large stone "islands." Last spring, on April 19, the wind-driven ice pack splintered eleven of the double poles that carried the line high above the water between South Hero and Milton, sent the 115,000 volt line crashing into Lake Champlain and restored the view.

Soon after daylight that morning, area residents were flocking to the Sand Bar to admire their newly restored view. Within days, more than 1,100 people had signed a petition demanding the downed line be replaced with an underwater one.

But VELCO sounded an alarm, claiming that if the line were not immediately restored, it could jeopardize the security of the entire Vermont power grid, especially as electrical demand increased during the heat of the summer. They sought and received a special executive order from Dean, and an emergency waiver from the Public Service Board, to allow the company to construct "temporary replacement facilities," using the same overhead configuration that had been in place since the 1950s.

At the time, Richard Mallary, then VELCO President, said the temporary line would be constructed in "the least cost manner," consistent with safety code requirements, "not in a permanent 30-to 50-year configuration." With luck and a speedy permitting process, he said, "Conceivably we could have a submarine cable installed before the next ice season." Electing to give the company an extra year beyond that ambitious goal, the Public Service Board and Dean both ordered that the waiver allowing the temporary overhead replacement line would expire December 31, 1995.

"My big fear is I don't want it to be a 20-year temporary fix," Representative John LaBarge, R-Grand Isle, said at the time. But as the new and higher poles were surrounded with even higher piles of stones, area residents grumbled that the temporary line was looking "permanent."

In October, those fears were confirmed when the VELCO Board of Directors voted to support what it called the "least cost" option, of keeping the overhead lines. In its October 6 news release, the company reported the cost to reinforce the temporary line would be about $500,000 compared to a total cost of about $6 million for a submerged line.

Richard Chapman, current president of VELCO, in his written testimony to the PSB, argued that, "The destruction of PV20 affords no greater rationale for its replacement now with submarine cable than existed the day before the loss occurred. In fact, the rationale today is far weaker, since we now have a brand new facility in place, rather than one that is thirty-seven years old."

But those arguments carried little weight with people who had, many for the first time in their lives, at least briefly been able to enjoy the unimpeded view. By the tine VELCO had filed its petition for the permanent replacement of the damaged line on October 31, the deadline set by the PSB emergency waiver, opponents to the overhead line were lining up to challenge both the figures and the conclusions of the company.

In mid-October, the Milton Planning Commission voted to support the buried line, followed soon after by the South Hero Planning Commission. "That panoramic view, in the case of our town, is more than just a view," said Ralph Montefusco, a member of the South Hero commission. "It's the linch pin of our local economy."

With limited opportunities for commercial development, South Hero, like the rest of Grand Isle County, relies primarily on tourism for its economic health, Montefusco said. The expansive views of Lake Champlain are the county's major asset, and this power line parallels the only southern access to the island county.

"We will continue to fight to have the line buried," said Senator Richard Mazza, D-Grand Isle. LaBarge likewise pledged to continue to advance the concerns of his constituents who are overwhelmingly in favor of an underwater line.

Dean reiterated his support for a submerged line, and, along with Mazza and LaBarge, questioned the cost differential cited by VELCO. "We think the $5.5 million difference may be a little high," said Dean.

In its petition filed October 31, an engineer working for VELCO indicated the actual cost of installing the submerged line, including an added 15 percent "contingency," was actually $4.6 million. To this VELCO added assorted other costs, including Vermont sales tax (estimated at $144,000), cost of consultants ($250,000), additional cost if construction is done during low water ($250,000) and several other smaller charges, and came up with a total of $5,470,000. To this it added an estimated $800,000 to remove the "temporary" line.

In its filing, the company also indicated it had already spent almost $1.5 million instead of the $580,000 it had told the PSB it would spend to construct the temporary line. VELCO indicated one reason for that added cost was that the work was proceeding more slowly that had been anticipated, so it instituted costly around-the-clock construction.

According to VELCO, the temporary line was actually energized June 17, well ahead of the June 24 target date the company had set in May. VELCO proposes to spend another $500,000 or more building larger artificial islands and possibly a secondary set of islands to the south to fortify the poles against the relentlessly moving lake ice.

A status conference in November determined who has party status in this matter. At least one public hearing will be held in Grand Isle County. Those who have party status will be able to offer testimony and question witnesses in the technical hearings that will probably be held in Montpelier. A decision on the issue will probably take between three and six months.

The PSB ruling will have to balance the cost--about 24 cents per $100 electric bill for the submerged line, compared to 7 cents on that same bill for the overhead line--against the intangible but, according to area businesses, very real, value of the panoramic view looking south over Lake Champlain and west to the high peaks of the Adirondacks.

Eloise Hedbor is a freelance writer from South Hero.

Copyright Lake Iroquois Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Vermont Business Magazine Dec 1994
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