Arrowhead-Weston Transmission Line
Clean Wisconsin files lawsuit challenging DNR decisions to move ahead
The Arrowhead-Weston (A-W) electric transmission line threatens Wisconsin’s special places. The proposed 345kV transmission line would run 210-miles from Duluth (Arrowhead) to Wausau (Weston) and would cross the beautiful Namekagan River, among other places special to Wisconsinites. Clean Wisconsin has opposed the line since 2000 and is currently partnered with Save Our Unique Lands (SOUL) in a lawsuit over the DNR’s permit allowing construction in wetlands. |
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Will a New High Voltage Transmission Line Be on Your Horizon?
By Katie Nekola
You get a large envelope in the mail. It’s from the American Transmission Company (ATC), the Wisconsin utility that builds and maintains the state’s electric transmission grid. Inside is a friendly letter, along with full-color fold-out maps of proposed route(s) for new high voltage transmission lines in your neighborhood. You’re invited to a public information meeting to find out more about this major utility project, and the letter says your input is very valuable. What’s your reaction?
If you’re like many of us, you wonder who these people are and why they’re sending out so much information, when they’re saying they haven’t yet made a final decision about where they want to put the transmission line. Could it really be that your participation will influence their decisions? Are they really saying that if you go to their meeting, listen to their plans and talk to their representatives, ATC will consider your opinion?
That’s what ATC’s saying, but history tells us that
sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. In counties from
Superior down to Wausau, when this mega-corporation proposed to
build the Arrowhead-Weston line through miles of wolf and trumpeter
swan inhabited wilderness, local citizens turned out in droves
to learn more and to voice their concerns. Later on, when public
meetings turned into state run public hearings, even more people
came to testify in opposition to the line. Still later, when those
same citizens challenged the legality of the state decision to
approve the line, courtrooms were full of local folks who came
to show how strongly they opposed the damage that line would cause.
And in the end, when the legislature trampled on laws that protected
the rights of local governments to protect public lands from development
by this mega-corporation, those same dedicated citizens came, some
from 300 miles away, to tell their legislators what they thought.
And what did ATC do with all that “input”? They ignored
it, tried to discredit it, and fought against it every step of
the way. They wanted to build their enormous transmission line
through the north woods, and they stopped at nothing to achieve
that goal. To this day, experts question the need for that project,
and the reliability of its design. And residents of northern Wisconsin
will watch as acres of pristine wetlands and county forest are
trampled by construction equipment and precious habitat for wildlife
is destroyed.
So, if you get an envelope that warns you that ATC is considering building a new transmission line on your horizon (and if you haven’t yet, you probably will soon), what should you do? Is it worth getting involved, and trying to affect the outcome? In spite of all I’ve said, the answer is yes. Even though Arrowhead-Weston survived our challenges, ATC and the regulatory agencies would rather not spend years litigating these projects, and they are looking for solutions. In fact, ATC recently decided to delay building a major transmission line in southeastern Wisconsin, because of analysis done by environmental and consumer groups. State energy policy is at a crossroads, and there is a growing awareness of the need for clean, safe energy. Clean Wisconsin is tracking new transmission proposals around the state, and we’ll continue to question the need for new transmission lines, and the environmental impacts of each project. We’re working to promote a balanced approach to meeting our energy needs, one that doesn’t rely on huge transmission projects and dirty power plants. We believe that through coordinated efforts with concerned citizens, we can make progress toward that goal.
So go ahead and attend the public meeting. Find out more, and tell ATC what you think. Be prepared to learn more about these issues than you ever wanted to know. Be prepared to attend more than one meeting, and to question everything you hear and read. And if you don’t agree with what ATC is proposing be prepared to fight, because if you don’t fight, you’re certain not to win. Call Clean Wisconsin for more information on transmission line projects at (608) 251-7020 ext. 14.
Arrowhead-Weston wetlands permit upheld
In July 2005, SOUL and Clean Wisconsin lost our challenge to the DNR wetlands permits for the Arrowhead-Weston transmission line project. Hearings were held in Hayward in May and June, at which we presented expert testimony about the impacts of this large-scale construction project on northern forests and wetlands. Many SOUL members and other concerned citizens testified at the hearings, as well. Even though the DNR admitted that their analysis was incomplete, the judge ruled that the clearing of at least 90 acres of forested wetlands and impacts to 51 wetland areas of ‘special natural resource interest’ would not result in “significant adverse impacts.” Clean Wisconsin salutes the people of central and northwestern Wisconsin who have tirelessly fought this enormous project for years. We also thank Glenn Stoddard for his hard work and excellent representation in this case.
The latest on the Arrowhead-Weston line
Excerpted from a piece written by Attorney Glenn Stoddard from Garvey & Stoddard
The Arrowhead-Weston project that would have cut a path for high voltage power lines through much of Wisconsin hit a snag in February. The Douglas County Board denied the American Transmission Company (ATC) access to any county land for the project thus ending the debate that had begun when the project was proposed in 1999. ATC and the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (WPSC) must now go back to the drawing board to re-route the proposed line around public land in Douglas County.
Clean Wisconsin, the grassroots organization Save Our Unique Lands (SOUL) and seven individual citizens also filed a challenge against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) decision regarding the Arrowhead-Weston project. The challenge requests a contested case hearing and stay of the DNR’s late December decisions related to Chapter 30 rules and wetlands. On February 21, the DNR granted our request for a stay and a contested case hearing.
The request alleges that the DNR failed in its legal obligation to prohibit destructive activities and prepare comprehensive environmental impact assessments of the proposed project. One particular issue involves the ATC’s claim and the DNR’s seeming acceptance of it that approximately ½ an acre of wetland surface area is all that would be affected by the placement of power line pole structures. This may be the surface area that is permanently taken up by the polls themselves, but it is certainly not the total that would be affected.
In order to build the power lines through wetlands the ATC would have to create access to the site, haul poles and equipment in, dig the holes, remove and store the dug soil, haul tons of concrete in to support the poles, erect the poles in the wetland soils, and install guy wires in the wetlands. All this would certainly affect far more than a half acre of land by compacting land, changing surface water drainage patterns and destroying vegetation in and surrounding the wetlands.
Other potential affects include the strong possibility of perforating the perched water tables that would be akin to poking a hole in the bottom of a giant swimming pool. The wetlands could permanently disappear as water drained out of them. The flow of groundwater in aquifers and surface water into streams and rivers could be permanently changed. The DNR seems to have ignored these potential impacts and has instead relied on the ATC’s claim that less than an acre of wetlands would be affected in granting Chapter 30 permits and Wetland Water Quality Certification to the project in late December.
The ATC has said it is confident that the permits will be approved in court and that it will begin working with the PSC to move the project onto private lands while simultaneously beginning to seek condemnation of Douglas County land since it would rather use public lands if possible.
Spokesperson for American Transmission Company inaccurately states only a half an acre of wetlands would be affected by constructing the 210-mile line
In a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS) article printed on January 25th, reporter Thomas Content relayed a quote from Mark Williamson, vice president of major projects at American Transmission Company which inaccurately stated only a half an acre of wetlands would be affected by constructing the 220-mile line.
Glenn Stoddard, of Garvey & Stoddard in Madison (attorneys for SOUL and Clean Wisconsin in this case) responded with a letter advising the MJS reporter with more accurate facts about the wetland destruction that can be expected if this proposed line is built.
January 27, 2005 Tom, I noticed in your article of January 25th on our Arrowhead-Weston contested case hearing and stay request that Mark Williamson of ATC was quoted as saying the impact to wetlands of the whole project will be less than "half an acre." For what it's worth, here' how we see it: ATC has taken the position with DNR, and DNR has largely accepted it in granting the Ch. 30 and Wetland Water Quality Certification approvals that SOUL and Clean Wisconsin have challenged, that when you add up the surface area that would be directly affected by the power line pole structures to be placed in wetlands, the total surface area adds up to about half an acre. This, of course, is only the area that would be permanently taken up by the poles themselves. It does not include the surrounding wetlands and nearby upland areas that would be adversely affected during the actual construction phase. Unfortunately, those areas would be adversely affected on both a temporary and permanent basis because they would be run over by heavy equipment that would: 1) have to access the entire right of way to clear it; 2) haul poles and heavy digging equipment into place; 3) dig the holes for the pole structures; 4) store and then remove or dispose of the dug soil; 5) haul thousands of tons of concrete per pole into the wetland areas; 6) construct and erect the poles and then place them in the wetland soils; 7) install related supports to anchor the poles in the concrete; and 8) install guy wires and other supports in the wetland soils at locations removed from the actual pole structures. All of these operations are significant yet ATC is claiming that the construction phase will only have temporary adverse impacts to wetlands and stream crossings, and that the permanent adverse impacts will be limited to only the specific areas taken up by the poles. However, the construction phase will certainly have long-lasting and permanent adverse impacts beyond the specific pole locations. This is because during the construction phase wetland vegetation will be destroyed, wetland soils will be permanently compacted, and there will be permanent damage to the soils and slopes along the edges of affected wetlands, streams and rivers. None of these impacts are included in ATC's "half acre" claim because ATC doesn't want to have anyone think about them or have DNR evaluate them. However, if they are taken into account the permanent adverse impacts to wetlands will probably be in the hundreds of acres if not more for this project. Furthermore, the pole structures themselves will not just affect the surface areas of the wetlands, so the adverse impacts of the poles should not just be looked at from that standpoint. The poles must be placed and anchored deep into the ground with tons of cement that must be transported to the sites and poured into deep holes in fragile and unstable wetland soils. This will change the way in which the affected wetland soils function in transmitting water both on the surface and below the surface of the affected wetlands. And because of the depth of the holes that will have to be dug, some perched wetland water tables will almost certainly be perforated in the construction process. This could cause drainage of entire wetlands, like knocking a hole in the bottom of a giant swimming pool. As a result, hundreds of acres of wetlands could be drained and destroyed on a permanent basis. This would also affect the flow of groundwater in local aquifers and may affect the way both groundwater and surface water flows from the affected wetlands to nearby streams and rivers. None of this has been evaluated by ATC or DNR on a site by site basis. Instead, DNR took ATC's data and issued one huge approval for the whole project. A contested case hearing and stay, however, would give us a chance to raise these important issues. In summary, I am confident there would be many more significant and potentially far reaching adverse impacts to the affected wetlands than ATC is admitting based on its silly "half acre" claim about the poles themselves. If our request for a contested case hearing and stay is granted by the DNR (as we believe they should be under the law), we are confident that we will be able to show with lay and expert testimony that ATC's "half acre" claim is a not credible and that these other, broader environmental impacts will be very significant. Thanks for your attention to this and please let me know if you have any questions. Sincerely, |