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Progress Energy Power Line Routes Jolt Opposition

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BY CARL ORTH

SUNCOAST NEWS ASSISTANT EDITOR

Published: May 3, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Spurred by possible routes for new transmission power lines for Progress Energy Florida, opposition continues to mount against placing the high-voltage lines along the S.R. 54 corridor.

The County Commission this week decided to recruit experts the county could hire to analyze the three potential routes for the transmission lines, which would carry 500,000 volts.

Meanwhile, a coalition of homeowners has banded together against the power-line project. The Briar Patch Village of Seven Springs Coalition Against Progress Energy will hold a meeting at 10 a.m. this morning, Saturday, May 3, at the VFW Post 7987, 7445 Chester McKay Road.

The community would be within the route of one of the three corridors under consideration, the association learned last month.

A Monday meeting on the power line proposal in the Land O' Lakes area drew 400 to 500 people, Commissioner Michael Cox said.

The proposed high-voltage power lines would seem to run counter to a recent Urban Land Institute recommendation, Cox said. The institute suggested the county improve the appearance of some of its gateway corridors, such as S.R. 54.

Commissioner Pat Mulieri said she would prefer to see the transmission lines buried underground, but Progress Energy officials have had told her that would be too expensive.

"Tell them this is our county," Mulieri said. She fought against gas transmission lines in the 1990s before becoming a commissioner.

"Underground transmission lines have significant environmental impact and cost significantly more," Progress Energy spokeswoman Cheri Jacobs said this afternoon over the phone.

Underground lines cost 10 times more in fact, Jacobs emphasized.

That's why the United States has more than 200,000 miles of overhead transmission lines compared to 5,000 miles of underground transmission lines in the entire country, according to a Progress Energy press release.

Underground lines are still subject to outages, making it more difficult to locate and fix a problem, the utility fact sheet adds. During floods, water must recede before repairs can start on underground lines.

Meanwhile, the homeowner coalition has invited a Progress Energy representative, Gail Simpson, to speak at Saturday's meeting, according to Betty Abshire, president of the Briar Patch Village of Seven Springs Homeowner's Association. Commissioner Ann Hildebrand has indicated she will be at the meeting.

At a March open house, Progress Energy officials said they need the power lines to keep up with population growth, especially if a proposed electricity-generating plant is built in Levy County.

A Progress Energy map handed to residents in March showed the three possible routes through Pasco.

The westernmost route would swing over toward Little Road and then head south before turning east along the S.R. 54 corridor. The easternmost route largely would follow the Suncoast Parkway toll road, near some of the newest homes in the county. A third possible route falls somewhere in between.

The utility hopes to buy land late this year to make room for the additional power lines, another Progress Energy, spokeswoman Cheri Jacobs, said in March.

Construction might begin in 2012. It's possible the extra 200 miles of power lines will follow the same corridors as existing transmission lines.

Time to influence the route of the transmission lines is short, commissioners said Tuesday, so they authorized County Administrator John Gallagher to search for experts to study the route proposals.

The county employed the same tactics in the late 1990s over a proposed gas transmission line crossing Pasco.

That gas line was never constructed.

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