Columbia transmission line project on hold after council vote

The Columbia City Council voted 4-3 to stop further work on a controversial transmission line project in the south part of town.

Hundreds of people attended Monday night’s meeting, the public hearing on the power line lasting more than four hours. The council approved the project in 2013, with several miles of 161 kilovolt overhead transmission lines running from a substation near the Grindstone exit of Highway 63 through south Columbia to a substation off Scott Boulevard.

Fifth Ward city councilwoman Laura Nauser asked to re-open discussion on the route in November, after renewed public scrutiny over the placement of the metal poles along the route, which spans Grindstone Parkway, Nifong Boulevard and Vawter School Road, among others. Nauser, along with Ian Thomas, Clyde Ruffin and Betsy Peters voted against the plan to continue the project.

“the biggest compelling factor, to me, is five schools, and doing the least harm to the fewest amount of people,” Nauser said.

Opponents of the current route for the project criticized it for its proximity to hundreds of homes and at least five schools. Many feared the medical effects electromagnetic frequency would have on children, although the EPA said science is does not “clearly show” a connection between childhood cancer risks and the EMF from electronic devices.

Columbia Water and Light said the project needed to proceed to provide more electric capacity for the growing population. Mayor Bob McDavid supported the current route to avoid cascading blackouts, in the event of a mechanical failure of the city’s equipment.

“If we delay this, and there are rolling blackouts, there are going to be 50,000 people very unhappy,” McDavid said.

Thomas said the group would need to come up with several questions remaining from the public hearing, including the city’s electric capacity, federal reliability rules and pole placement.

Columbia voters approved $36 million in bonds to pay for the project in April 2015. In turn, the city raised utility rates by three percent, and plan to raise it another three percent by 2018.