News

Farmers united in battle against power line

By Bill Moss, Published: August 20, 2015

Farmers who met with Duke Energy officials said they want to make sure that the utility and state regulators take the interests of agriculture as seriously as other industries and residential property owners.

“The impact is very negative,” Mark Williams, the director of the Agribusiness Henderson County, said after the meeting on Aug. 7. “We would not have real estate deals falling through right now if people didn’t perceive that it devalues property to having a line coming across it. We’re told that state precedent is there is no compensation for anything outside of that right of way. So the answer is, there’ll be no compensation.”

Williams said the farmers asked whether Duke could run the line through the Green River Gamelands, potentially sparing some farms. “The response was, Duke does not possess the power of eminent domain on state-owned properties,” he said. “There’s an agreement — written or verbal — that they stay off of stateowned properties, and likewise DOT right of ways.”

Consequently, farmers left the meeting asking, “Are we any less important than protection of publicly owned property? How are we going to band together on this?” The agriculture community is also seeking clearer answers on what kind of farming is allowed under the power lines.

“We did learn with this project they’re indicating they will accept 15 feet” in height, Williams said. The utility had said the maximum was 12 feet. “That should cover for most newer orchards in production. A concern is still there in respect to allowing access for maintenance.”

Growers also are seeking input on how the power lines would cross farmland.

“If you’re coming right down the middle of my orchard and I’m losing X number of trees I may be willing to take the same amount of money or less money if you run it along the woodland as opposed to right through the middle of the orchard or the field,” Williams said.

“We didn’t get a full answer,” on how the utility would compensate farmers for the 10- to 20-year production life of apple trees that are in the path “I feel like that burden might fall back on us as a group to try to get some figures that are reasonable and that are supported,” he said. “I guess the big overriding emphasis is, as a group, those in agriculture production, we just want to make sure that our voice carries as much weight as the voice of any other group — whether it be homeowners, those that have greater environmental concerns, industrial — any other group.”

Unlike a homeowners association or a town that would like to force Duke to take an alternative path, agencies like AgHC, the Farm Bureau and the Agriculture Extension Service must stick together.

“Where the ag community has to be careful is we don’t want to be working against ourselves,” he said. “We don’t want it to be Edneyville apple growers against the Mills River tomato growers, where we’re trying to push the line to one end of the county or the other. We do want to take a unified approach to making sure that our interests are protected for agriculture as a whole.”