High Voltage Power lines - Danger

Danger of High Voltage Power Lines - 500kv

Only in Alberta would a monstrous and industrial-strength, high-voltage power line be called the Heartland Project.

Then again, the Heartland Project's mandate is to deliver electricity to the oil upgraders and refineries near Fort Saskatchewan, an area dubbed the Industrial Heartland.

So the name, Heartland Project, isn't so much a surreptitious marketing ploy as a bow to the provincial god, Oil.

Church of Oil, meet Cult of NIMBY --also known as the people of the Edmonton region.

A growing number of them are far from impressed by the Heartland Project, its name or its promise to erect skyscraper-sized power lines near their homes. In fact, they view the proposed towers of power as a threat to life, limb and property value.

While I often find NIMBY-ism dreary and dubious, these people have a point. It's one thing to protest a high-design, highrise condo development in a mature neighbourhood. It is another thing entirely to find fault with the quantum hum and gleam of 500 kilovolt power lines, not to mention towers 60 metres high and almost as wide.

The electromagnetic field created by power lines, some believe, causes everything from cancer to dementia. The science is up for debate, but that is actually beside the point. Perception is reality.

Who is going to risk their own health or that of loved ones? Who wants to buy a 2,500-square-foot bungalow in the suburbs if the view out back is an industrial power grid? And by the way, what IS that hum?

The Heartland Project involves four potential routes around Edmonton to the Fort Saskatchewan area.
Two of them run alongside urban areas: between Edmonton and Sherwood Park in one case; along west Edmonton and southern St. Albert in the other.

The Heartland Project is in the midst of public consultation. Epcor is gathering the citizen input. If Epcor's experience is anything like mine, its

-Residents voice concerns about power lines
- ears are ringing.

People are freaking out. Protest groups are forming and the newborn activists are dutifully informing neighbours of the health and safety concerns.

Are their worries legitimate?

Again, the health and safety issues are debatable. But the scope and scale of the Heartland Project is such that I believe it violates a basic premise of planning and civics.
It is simply unfair and unjust to put industrial projects next to people and neighbourhoods. Yes, many of these people bought homes alongside a utility corridor, but no one envisioned anything of this scope and scale.

Yet the power lines of the Heartland Project can't be simply dismissed.

If the Edmonton region is to enjoy a flourishing economy in decades to come, then new industry must be attracted.

To attract those industries, the infrastructure must be available to meet their needs. So how do we get power to them?

If not in your backyard, where?

Edmonton city council voted on this matter in June
. They asked for a report on the advantages and disadvantages of burying 500-kV power lines. A letter was also written to the premier, expressing council's desire for these industrial power lines to be placed underground.

The Alberta Electric System Operator-- it plans and manages transmission lines--is studying the feasibility of burying power lines.

AESO director Neil Brausen says it's not as simple, though, as digging a trench, dropping in a line and back filling. Often, tunnels or ducts must be constructed to house the lines.

There are some likely savings in maintenance costs. But the capital costs are typically five to 20 times more expensive than overhead lines, says Brausen.

He says a report on the feasibility and costs will be done in late August or early September.
Mayor Stephen Mandel says council is clear on the matter: "We want to see the lines buried and we will push to have that done."

But Mandel said people must also be prepared to pay any additional costs. By "people," he means us.

Brausen said the Alberta Utilities Commission, in an earlier case, rejected the city of Lethbridge's call for a 500-kV line to be buried. The commission, though, advised Lethbridge it could get its wish if it shared in the cost.

The people of the Edmonton region might have to do the same.

Pay the money and bury the line.
Save the Heartland.