Neighbors of proposed power line want it buried

Jan 30 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Thomas Content Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Pressure is building on a Pewaukee power line company to place a new 138,000-volt power line in western Milwaukee County underground.

Major businesses and a local environmental group are joining the Milwaukee Montessori School and St. Therese Catholic Church in seeking to have portions of American Transmission Co.'s new power lines buried rather than strung overhead.

This week, the Wauwatosa Common Council and Milwaukee County Board are expected to consider resolutions urging that the lines be buried.

Then the process moves to the state Public Service Commission, which decides power line projects and has a split track record on whether to allow lines to be buried.

Opposition was launched by the Milwaukee Montessori School and has expanded to include the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Real Estate Foundation, which is developing an Innovation Park there.

"There's now growing opposition that will not stop, and it's a strong signal that ATC needs to reconsider its current plans," said Evan Zeppos, spokesman for the Milwaukee Montessori School.

The power line is needed, We Energies and ATC say, to help meet rising demand and to accommodate the development in the area of the Milwaukee County Research Park and the regional medical complex.

ATC will propose two alternate routes for each of the lines for state regulators to consider. The project consists of two 138,000-volt lines that would link to a new substation, one extending to the west and another to the south. Bill Hatcher, executive director of the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, said an underground line would be less susceptible to strong winds and other events that often cause overhead lines to go out of service.

"I think it's a 20th-century solution to a 21st-century issue here. I hope the citizens in Wauwatosa demand that those lines get put underground," Hatcher said.

Hatcher and Curtis Stang of the UWM Real Estate Foundation said they were concerned an overhead transmission line would hurt the image they are seeking to convey for the medical center and business park.

"It unnecessarily hampers the further development of that site, where burying the line would not have that same kind of impact," said Hatcher.

UWM is planning to build a business accelerator as the first building in its Innovation Park, and is concerned about recruiting businesses to locate there.

Environmental objection

Meanwhile, the environmental group Milwaukee Riverkeeper objects to the power lines on the grounds that stringing the line "along Underwood Parkway would set a negative precedent for the entire Milwaukee County Parkway and Oak Leaf Trail systems, which currently are not marred by high-voltage transmission lines."

The group also wants the lines buried because of the Milwaukee County Grounds' status as one of the county's last and largest remaining natural areas -- an annual stopover for migrating monarch butterflies.

ATC spokeswoman Anne Spaltholz said the company will propose a variety of alternatives to the PSC in its application next month. The project is projected to cost $14 million to $40 million.

Proposing new power lines in densely populated areas is challenging, and ATC considers the routes it has selected to be the best alternatives, Spaltholz said.

"We know that putting transmission lines underground is always more expensive than overhead," she said. "And in this particular project, in a congested urban area, there are challenges on almost every route segment that we're proposing."

One-year review

ATC will file its application with the PSC in mid-February, and the agency's review process is expected to take up to a year. Construction would start in 2014 and be completed in 2015. A review of power line cases approved by the Public Service Commission since ATC was founded more than a decade ago shows it's unusual for the PSC to endorse burying power lines.

The PSC has twice rejected bids to bury transmission lines, including a 345,000-volt project that will cross Dane County. The University of Wisconsin Arboretum and City of Madison sought to have the line buried but were turned down.

But in two other cases, agency spokeswoman Kristen Ruesch said, the PSC has allowed a portion of a power line to be buried. In one case, portions of a power line on the east side of Madison were proposed by ATC to be built underground to reduce the number of trees that would have to be taken down and to reduce the impact on nearby neighborhoods.

In another case, in northern Wisconsin, a portion of a line near an airport was buried, Ruesch said.

"Our responsibility is to give the PSC information about routes so that they can make the best decision in the interests of all electric ratepayers as well as the local community," Spaltholz said.