Kayakas!

On Wednesday night, the Nokesville Civic Association hosted a meeting on the >Meadow

• Wally Covington - Brentsville District Supervisor
• John Stirrup - Gainesville District Supervisor
• Jeff Brown - Energy Economist
• Bri West - Special Projects Assistant for the PIEDMONT ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL
• Charlie Grymes - Chair of the Prince William Conservation Alliance
• In addition, Delegate Michele McQuigg came to the meeting, and Congressmen Tom Davis and Frank Wolf had representatives in attendance.

Supervisor Covington spoke first. He noted that Dominion Virginia’s preferred path, using an existing right-of-way, takes the power-line into the western edge of the Manassas National Battlefield Park. Dominion’s preferred route for the 500 kV power-line would require towers that would dwarf the towers in the existing right-of-way. This creates the potential for subjecting the power-line to section 106 review (see here). Section 106 is part of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Section 106 requires Federal agencies to consider the effects of their actions on historic properties and
provide the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) an opportunity to comment on Federal projects prior to implementation.

Supervisor Stirrup, consider by Covington to be the BOCS’ lead on this issue,

Jeff Brown served as the keynote speaker, giving people heretofore unfamiliar with the power-line the opportunity to come up to speed. He began by noting that New Jersey, not Virginia, needs additional power.

Power can now be generated cheaply in coal country (lower pollution regulations) and transmitted to populated regions (tougher pollution regulations) via power-lines.

Brown next attacked the need for the new power-line.

• Conservation. Power can be saved, for example, by replacing light bulbs with florescent lights. Virginia (the government), Brown noted, spends next to nothing on energy conservation. Only Wyoming spends less than Virginia. Brown speculated that $1.6 billion dollars might be saved via energy conservation.
• Local generation. Brown obviously believes the best alternative is power generation with natural gas or with gas produced via coal gasification. Such power plants, which use gas turbines similar to jet engines, produce little pollution. If built underground in sound proofed facilities, such power plants can even be good neighbors. In addition, Brown suggested local power generation using nuclear power plants. France, for example, produces 70 percent of its power with such plants.
• Improving existing transmission lines. Transmitting electrical power is costly. In addition to the hardware involved, there can be significant power losses, perhaps as much as 30 percent for a hundred miles. Because Dominion has yet to provide sufficient data, Brown did not offer specific numbers on this.
• New transmission lines. In addition to the hardware and power losses, new transmission lines require the condemnation of lots of land. Due to its width (200 feet), a 500 kV power-line has an extraordinarily huge footprint.

Further, Brown noted that the problem Dominion is trying to solve with this power-line is not as serious as one might think.

Based upon the data Dominion has provided, Brown made two other observations.

Brown noted that Dominion has two opportunities to get its power-line approved.

When Jeff Brown was ask what citizens can do, Bri West took that as her cue.

• Staying informed.
• Contacting congressmen and the governor.
• Supporting elected officials such Bob Marshall and the county supervisors who oppose the power-line.
• Volunteering and funding organizations such as the PEC.
• Conserving energy.

Charlie Grymes then added his two cents.

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