Letters sent to inform community about hearing on transmission line route

Columbia city leaders are making an effort to inform the community about The Columbia Electric Transmission Line Project.

The city sent out mailers this week informing the public about an upcoming public hearing on the project. This comes after community members raised concerns last month about not being properly informed about the project.

The Columbia City Council will hold a second public hearing on January 19to “reconsider” the route on the transmission line project south of town. The first public hearing on the project was held in July of 2013.

The city council voted unanimously to hold another hearing with the promise for city staff to provide more specific information on the eight-mile long line of poles stretching from Grindstone Parkway to Scott Boulevard approved in 2013. Nearly a dozen people, some with homes along the route, others with businesses along the path and still others with children attending a nearby school, renewed their concerns with the plan, which Columbia Water & Light crews have started to decide where the poles will be placed.

“I have some real concerns, especially when a lot of these lines are going close to residential homes, and on the opposite side of the street are big lots…that would impact much fewer people,” Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser said when she made the motion to reconsider the route.

The current plan starts at the Grindstone Substation near Highway 63 and ends at the Perche Creek Substation off Scott Boulevard.

Speakers at Monday’s meeting cited the look of eight miles of transmission line poles, their close proximity to some homes and retirement centers, along with health problems that may come from electromagnetic frequencies created by the lines. While the Environmental Protection Agency says science regarding EMF “have not clearly shown whether or not exposure to EMF increases cancer risk,” residents feared risking the potential health effects for the lines’ construction.

“They asked for us to come back with more information,” Mark Farnen, spokesman for the Villages at Bedford Walk retirement community said. “And I think it’s going to be a very vibrant, very robust and probably, relatively loud conversation.”

Columbia Water and Light keeps a page of extensive notes and records regarding the transmission line project. The city began the conversation of where to build the lines and whether they should use poles or bury the cables in 2011. Department spokeswoman Connie Kacprowicz told ABC 17 News in January that the city needed to build the lines to stay ahead of federal regulations for electric capacity. Without the lines, the city could be subjected to million-dollar fines.

Farnen said the city’s presentations don’t accurately reflect the tone and comments received at those public meetings, though.

Columbia voters passed Proposition 1 in April which allowed the city to borrow $63.1 million for electric-related projects. The transmission line project took a bulk of that money, and the city raised electric rates for utility customers by six percent to pay for the bonds.

One resident at the meeting said the city may have communicated the issue poorly to residents at the time. Many in southwest Columbia use Boone Electric Cooperative for their electric utility, and may have disregarded the transmission line issue because of it.

Mayor Bob McDavid said the transmission line project was widely publicized for years, but supported another public hearing on the route’s location.