News

County on sidelines for Duke transmission line debate

A Duke Energy employee uses an electronic mapping system to check a transmission line route in relation to a homeowner’s property.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 31, 2015

Cummings Cove residents came out in force last week when Duke Energy hosted a third session to answer questions about its proposed 40-mile high-powered transmission line and to receive public input.

“We are putting out mass emails, trying to rally the troops, we are organizing a letter-writing campaign to our City Councilmen, our County Councilmen, state reps, Duke itself, the North Carolina Utility Commission, and I’m gonna try to find other people to talk to,” said Baird Blake, vice president of the golf course development’s homeowners association. One of the proposed segments passes right over a new section of Cummings Cove.
“We’re a gem in Hendersonville,” said Andrew Brooks, one of the real estate agents now trying to sell lots in the new phase. “They can go other places, they don’t need to go through our community. And they need to do it soon, because until they do it, folks like myself, the builders, folks that want to sell, folks that want to build, that have already bought lots on this area, they can’t get them up.”
For all the opposition expressed by the hundreds of landowners who have shown up at the three public meetings, Brooks expressed a view shared by many. Whatever they say might not matter.
Baird Blake and Andrew Brooks are organizing opposition in Cummings Cove to Duke Energy’s proposed 230 kilovolt transmission line.“Duke has all the resources,” he said. “They’re talking about billions of dollars here to put in a plant. Yet, they couldn’t use current satellite technology, they couldn’t send out surveys and do their research to see what they would do before they put this out there. So instead of just doing it right and using the money that they already have and they can afford, they sit back and they put these proposed lines in, and destroy the livelihood of so many people, with outdated maps.”
Duke spokesman Tom Williams said it’s not true that the utility company ignores public input.
“It’s all about getting input,” he said. “The maps are a few years old, we know that. If people have concerns, we want to know about them and make the best decision.”
Williams also noted that the public hearings have drawn such large crowds because Duke notified people within 1,000 feet of the corridor, a much larger than its actual 150-foot right of way. And he said Duke engineers and planners will ultimate discard a majority of the 40 segments shown on the maps at the public sessions.
Jason Blue, who lives within a half mile of one of the proposed routes, was also pessimistic about the chances of stopping the 230’kilovolt line.
“This is going to happen whether we want it to or not,” he said. “There’s not anything we say or do that’s going to have any effect on any of this. It’s good to see the community turn up and be supportive of not doing it, but they’re going to make their money.”

No zoning power

Although the public utilities commissioners in North Carolina and South Carolina have a say in the review and approval process, Henderson County and its towns do not.
“I wish the county was in a position to do something or have some influence,” said Commissioner Michael Edney. “As I understand it we’re in no better position than any other landowner, and I don’t think Duke’s giving us any more or better information than they have given the public.”
He has been receiving calls and emails. “It’s basically residential, farming, all sorts of things,” he said. He tells constituents they need to contact the state Utilities Commission. “There’s no reason to put it on our agenda because there’s absolutely nothing we could do. And what I’ve told folks is I’ll keep my eyes and ears open and if I hear anything new I’ll share it with you.”
County Manager Steve Wyatt said while commissioners are watching “to see how it plays out” none has suggested any action.
“Neither the commissioners or the Legislature really have the authority to turn this ship in one direction or another,” he said. “I think Duke is certainly an asset and will be good citizens. Our region needs power there’s no question. Especially if we want to provide economic opportunity for people of Western North Carolina we’ve got to have reasonably priced sufficient quantities of electricity. There are legitimate concerns, no question about it. I appreciate the process that Duke is going through.”
Wyatt said he had received no request from opponents to appear before the Board of Commissioners.
“We hope it will be the least intrusive manner possible because we value our quality of life, which includes our viewscape, tremendously,” he said. “If you’re on the far ends of this argument you’re probably wrong. If you’re in the middle ground somewhere your chances of being right are a lot greater. There’s a balance there. Everybody wants cheap plentiful electricity. I love hot water in the morning and I love air conditioning when I get home.”
Nick Weedman, Flat Rock’s vice mayor, said one of the proposed route could run within view of the backside of Kenmure.
“I hear nothing positive to be honest with you,” he said. “It doesn’t directly affect any of Flat Rock, as nearly as I can tell. The people on the southside of Kenmure will abut one segment, I think (segment) 20 of one of the planned routes and people along there are up in arms about it.”

Tourism to take hit?

Kaye Caldwell, who owns vacation cabins, has been unhappy with the public process so far.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information about what the point of these lines is,” she said. “I just asked this man and he told me it was to transmit electricity. I think we all know that already. The question is what’s the point of them? Which way is the electricity going? If they’re building a new plant in Asheville that’s got twice the capacity, which they’ve said, why do we need power coming into it?”
Caldwell, who owns Clear Creek Cabins in Edneyville, said she fears the transmission lines will hurt the local tourism business.
“Henderson County is 70th of all the counties in this state in area,” she said. “We are 15th in the amount of money that is spent in our county by tourists. And this is not going to help that. The entire county is a tourist attraction. And they’re going to damage that, badly.”
Joyce Sutton, a native who lives off Upward Road, came to the public meeting Thursday night at Blue Ridge Community College. She did not think her opinion would matter.
“The power companies do what they want,” she said. “The law’s on their side. We can fight and do whatever we want to. It doesn’t make any difference.”
Meghan Musgrave, of Duke Power corporate communications staff, said the public input does matter.
“We’re here today to help the community know about our project, and the most important thing is that we’re here to listen to our customers,” she said. “We want to hear their feedback, we want to incorporate it into our planning, so we take the best route that will reliably serve the community not only now but decades from now.”
Besides public input, Duke will evaluate the impact on historic properties and other cultural resources, the environment and water quality.

‘Region needs both’

Walt Myers is a senior citizen from Campobello, S.C., where Duke plans to build a substation as part of the overall project. He attended all three public input meetings.
“Like many in our community, we’ve been busy the last three weeks talking about where the route should go and all the choices presented on that nice little interactive map on the Internet,” he said. “Well, I think by getting caught up in that, we’re being distracted from the real picture. The real picture is, is this transmission line required? Or is this transmission line desired?”
Williams, Duke’s director of external relations, said planners have designed the longterm upgrade around both the new natural gas plant and the importing of power from Duke’s Oconee nuclear plant in Seneca, S.C.
“The region needs both for reliability,” he said. “It needs more than just the natural gas plant. That’s why we’re building the wiring to import more power. It’s also to better tie it into the overall system for reliability. Gas plants go down sometimes. There are scheduled outages and there are also forced outages. We’re addressing a big deficiency in the system right now.”

When asked how the feedback would translate into action, she said, “So we take the input and conduct further study into our process, so we’ll compare it with all the feedback that we get, so it’s a balancing act that we need to do. So we compare it to environmental impact, as well as cultural resources, as well as all other criteria that we need to evaluate when we do projects like this.”