Apr 26 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - J. Miles Layton The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

John and Janie Balasko want to stop Allegheny Energy from building a high-power transmission line near their home, so they went to the Monongalia County Commission for help Wednesday. "It makes you physically sick," Janie Balasko said. "This is unreal. Our property will be worthless if this thing comes through. I can't believe this is happening."

The Balaskos joined a chorus of their neighbors and other citizens at the meeting who oppose the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line. The line would start in Pennsylvania and, if approved in West Virginia, would run 114 miles through Monongalia, Preston, Tucker, Grant, Hardy and Hampshire counties into Virginia. The commissioners unanimously approved a motion to ask the West Virginia Public Service Commission to extend the April 30 deadline by 60 days for any entity to register as an "intervenor" in the application process.

"This gives people more time to participate in the application process," Commissioner Bob Bell said. "I think these issues have come on the community rather quickly, and it is really unfamiliar to most of our understanding of what the effects could be on our county for years to come. This is something that needs to be looked at in great detail because this is forever."

Janie Balasko said this would allow them more time to better prepare an offense to oppose this measure.

"We will fight this until the end," she said. "We'll talk to anybody -- federal, state and local leaders -- to stop this from happening. This is not just about us, but about the whole state."

Neither Allegheny Energy nor the PSC was represented at the meeting. Bell said the commission plans to hold a public meeting next week to discuss these matters with a PSC representative. If approved by the PSC, 500-kilovolt power lines would be constructed within 300 to 400 feet of the bedroom of the new house the Balaskos are building on their property on Halleck Road. Allegheny's application to the PSC indicated that it is requesting the right to move the "preferred line" 1,100 feet from the centerline shown on its maps.

The transmission line would move around Morgantown's west side to avoid Cheat Lake and Coopers Rock, company officials previously reported in The Dominion Post. If the PSC approves the project, the transmission line is expected to be completed and functional by June 2011, the utility said.

John Balasko said the conceptual design shows each tower is 142 feet high and 75 feet wide, with a right-of-way of 200 feet.

"We have been working on this home by ourselves for about six years," he said. "We expected to live in this home until we died. That expectation could change based on the outcome of these two initiatives."

Allegheny is also requesting that the route be designated a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor in the northern part of the state.

The power of eminent domain may be used to zap property owners, Janie Balasko said.

"People don't realize that if this NIETC is designated, then the federal government can put power lines in that corridor with eminent power of domain," Balasko said. "Nothing will be able to stop them." Her husband said local control will be shifted to the federal government.

"If the NIETC designation is approved, the state and county will lose control of the siting of transmission lines," Balasko said. "I want to make everyone aware that the skids on these projects have been greased and we are about to be hit by a steamroller."

As part of the application process, the PSC will require that the company hold public hearings about the transmission-line project. Sarah Robertson, PSC spokeswoman, said there was no required number of public hearings; they're determined case by case, she said. Bell said he would be talking with county commissioners in counties along the proposed route to see what they think.

"We are going to see where they are on this," he said. "If we all agree that this might be an environmental intrusion into our counties, we may all oppose the proposed power line -- maybe join together."

The Greensburg, Pa.-based company applied to the Public Service Commission in late March to build the proposed 500-kilovolt line. The $1.3 billion Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, which would be built by Allegheny and Dominion Energy, of Richmond, Va., is intended to provide stability for the mid-Atlantic power grid operated by PJM Interconnection and meet increasing demand for electricity, according to The Associated Press. West Virginia and other states in the region could see blackouts and brownouts as early as 2011 if the line is not built, Allegheny said.

The line would begin in North Strabane Township, in Washington County, Pa., and run through Greene County, Pa., before crossing into West Virginia. The line would end in Loudoun County, Va.