Group Fears Line’s Environmental Implications

Pend Oreille Valley Railroad trains rumble by the back door of John and Mary Bell’s house twice daily, eliciting an occasional wave to the engineer before they disappear down the track.

John Bell said he’s had no problems with the railroad since he bought the 51-acre property a few miles west of Newport in 1988.

But a 115-kilovolt power line that would follow the railroad’s right of way across the Bell’s land is another matter.

They and a few others scattered along the 65-mile-long corridor proposed by the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District have organized at the 11th hour to fight the line’s possible environmental and economic impacts.

Their group, the EMR Alliance, questions the need for the line, and sneers at a brief environmental checklist they say ignores or glosses over some of its impacts.

EMR stands for electromagnetic radiation, which develops around power lines and other electrical machinery and appliances.

Some health and environmental groups claim electromagnetic fields can cause cancers if they exceed certain levels. Others say the scientific evidence is inconclusive.

The EMR group convinced the Cusick City Council two weeks ago to draft a one-year moratorium on construction of any power line through the city while an ordinance can be written that would disallow overhead high-voltage wires through the city.

The route proposed by the utility district, said opponent Sherry Porter, is adjacent to the Cusick School grounds.

“The line should not run that close,” she said.

Porter said the ordinance will be modeled on one adopted by the city of Camas in Clark County that so far has not been challenged.

Bell said the line that prompted enactment of the Camas ordinance had been the subject of a 3-inch-thick environmental impact statement.

“That should be at least the minimum,” he said.

Ronald John, who helped draft that ordinance and EIS, noted the federal government may set a lower threshold for allowable exposure to electromagnetic fields.

By comparison, Bell added, the Pend Oreille County commissioners issued permits for the utility district’s project on the basis of the short checklist required under the State Environmental Policy Act.

The Department of Ecology found the checklist responses inadequate in 1993. But the Pend Oreille County Commission issued a determination of non-significance on the project anyway, as well as a shoreline use permit.

The district subsequently presented the department with a more detailed map of the project.

Bell said he and other alliance members met with the commissioners two weeks ago to correct what they say are errors in the report. They followed up last week with a letter asking for a suspension of the permits while a full-blown environmental impact statement is prepared, or imposition of a county-wide moratorium on overhead lines.

Utility district General Manager Larry Weis responded to the line opponents in a Oct. 25 letter to real estate developer Scott Linden, who has a subdivision that would be crossed by the route.

He said the EMF concerns are “bogus,” noting that 115-kilovolt lines are commonly used in urban areas.

He said he had opposed a larger line endorsed by district engineers because of his experience with similar projects and the controversy they caused.

A suggestion the route follow Highway 20 instead of the railroad, a plan favored by the Bells, would add costs and increase land impacts, he said.

“We’re going to do the minimum amount of clearing necessary,” Weis added in a separate interview.

But he added that the district may consider rerouting the line around Cusick in response to resident concerns.

In the meantime, the utility district has started condemnation proceedings against landowners who have refused to negotiate rights of way.

Bell said most have accepted the district’s terms after threats and bullying. “It’s like blackmail,” he said.

Bell said he has discussed filing inverse condemnation claims against the utility district for the loss of property value that would result from construction of the power line.

An offer by Weis for a meeting to discuss some of the alliance’s concerns is not acceptable, he said.

“This is not a private issue,” Bell said. ” I am not going to be bought off.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo