Power Line Threat

 

 

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Our thanks to those who have attended Douglas County Power Line Committee and Douglas County Board meetings to voice their opposition to the proposed power line which would run through the Douglas County Wildlife Management Area.

Please attend future Douglas County Board  meetings in Superior at the Government Center 2nd floor Board room and continue to  express your opposition to the Arrowhead-Weston transmission line project!

 

 

The proposed 345-kilovolt Arrowhead-Weston transmission line has the potential to sunset the DCWMA.

Although there is a lot of “dust in the air” regarding the 345-KV power line proposed by the American Transmission Company (ATC), it is clear that its construction would be very harmful to the DCWMA. 

Amidst all the claims and counter-claims, the following are realities:

  • Construction of the 345-KV line is not inevitable.  American Transmission Company (ATC) is proposing the line because there is an existing price differential between the supply of cheap kilowatts found in Duluth-Superior and the demand for (expensive) kilowatts in SE Wisconsin and Chicago.  ATC generates no electricity, they only transport it.  The electrical energy is really coming from Manitoba, and ATC wants to move it into other markets.  There is no real economic benefit from the line for Douglas County and it will get none of the electricity.  All costs of the line will be repaid by Wisconsin electrical users.

To date, no Wisconsin county along the transmission line route has given permission for ATC to use their land.

  • The Douglas County Board of Supervisors can stop the whole project if they deny ATC the use of country property, as public property cannot be seized via eminent domain for the transmission line.  While the County would have to honor historically granted transmission line easements, Douglas County can stop the proposed line as the new line cannot be built entirely within the existing easements. 

Four years ago, the Board of Supervisors voted overwhelmingly to deny ATC the use of County land.  Since then, several new Supervisors have been elected and Douglas County is considering a new vote.  The Board is now going through the committee steps that are preliminary to this vote.

  • The existing transmission line right-of-way along the eastern side of the DCWMA is not suitable for the new towers.  Either the Solon Springs airport will have to close (and recently the Solon Springs Airport Committee has strongly reaffirmed their intent to not only keep the airport open, but to upgrade and expand it), or the transmission line will have to be moved to the west to avoid the flight line.  As the transmission line right-of-way would have to get back to Highway 53 somewhere north of the Gordon Flowage, it would cross the DCWMA.

To give an idea of the nature of the towers, they will be 160-175 feet high, require 120-150 feet of easement, and be mounted on four concrete anchors which are each 12 feet in diameter and 50 feet deep (about 5 feet being above grade. The towers/lines will emit a loud “buzz” ranging from 55-80 db.

  • If the 345-KV line is built, it will have a very harmful effect on the DCWMA and its future.

Also, if the 345-KV line is constructed, additional lines in the future (if built) would follow the same route and be sited to follow a parallel path, widening the 150 foot easement.