Project to Ensure Reliable Power for Vancouver Island

See also:
Power lines to proceed
Sandor Gyarmati, Delta Optimist, 18-Mar-2008

Buyouts possible for high-voltage-line homes
Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun, 18-Mar-2008

INFORMATION BULLETIN
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
March 17, 2008

VICTORIA – Following more than three years of extensive public consultations, two independent studies and input from federal and provincial health organizations, the Province has announced that construction of overhead lines for the Tsawwassen segment of the Vancouver Island Transmission Reinforcement (VITR) Project will move forward. This upgrade has been designed with the strictest health and safety measures and exceeds guidelines endorsed by the World Health Organization.

The VITR project will ensure a reliable supply of power for over 700,000 residents, social infrastructure and business services on Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands.

The three-year process included more than 40 presentations, briefings and public open houses, 1,600 requests for information responded to, validation from Health Canada and input from the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Fraser Valley Health Authority, Vancouver Island Health Authority and First Nations.

The project will remove a total of 58 poles. The current 78 wooden poles will be replaced with 20 new steel poles at 18 locations along the existing right-of-way that have been in place for 50 years.

Of the 18 pole locations on the right-of-way, nine are residential, three are owned by BC Hydro and six are non-residential or public spaces. The two lines that now flank each side of the right-of-way will be removed and replaced by a single set of poles.

Construction on this project will not start before June 1, 2008, which will allow for a full preconstruction notification and survey process and ensure that information is made available to all residents. Government is willing to consider the option of purchasing homes of affected homeowners on the right-of-way if they desire.

The government commissioned two independent studies to review the various proposals that had been brought forward by the British Columbia Transmission Corporation (BCTC) and a community organization. The independent studies confirmed the results of the BCTC cost estimates.

The decision to move forward with the overhead line construction is consistent with the British Columbia Utilities Commission and is scheduled to be in service by October 2008.

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backgrounder(s) attached.

Media contact:
Jake Jacobs
Ministry of Energy, Mines and
Petroleum Resources
250 952-0628
250 213-6934 (cell)

For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca.

Download this release
BCTC's VITR response to Tsawwassen residents' concerns www.knowthefacts.ca
BCTC VITR webpages

On Monday, the Ministry of Energy issued an information bulletin announcing that work will proceed on the controversial new power lines through the residential Tsawwassen right-of-way as originally planned.
CREDIT: File photo

It looks like the final blow for Tsawwassen residents fighting to prevent high voltage power lines from being strung over their homes.

On Monday, the Ministry of Energy issued an information bulletin announcing that work will proceed on the controversial new power lines through the residential right-of-way as originally planned. The work is scheduled to commence June 1 in order to complete the project by this October to service future power needs of Vancouver Island residents.

"Construction on this project will not start before June 1, 2008, which will allow for a full pre-construction notification and survey process and ensure that information is made available to all residents. Government is willing to consider the option of purchasing homes of affected homeowners on the right-of-way if they desire," the bulletin states.

Saying they will gather to decide their next course of action, Tsawwassen Residents Against Higher Voltage Power Lines (TRAHVOL) co-chair Cec Dunn was angered at the latest setback in their three-year fight against the power lines.

"We have a number of options we'll be looking at and there's a number of considerations based on this answer coming out. We hoped, of course, it would be coming out the other way," said Dunn, who spoke with Energy Minister Richard Neufeld this week.

BCTC wants to remove both of the existing 138 kV (kiloVolt) single-circuit overhead lines (on wooden H-frame poles) and replace them with a new overhead 230 kV double-circuit on 120-foot-tall steel towers. Neufeld recently released the results of two independent studies he commissioned that conclude the cost to bury power lines in a method known as horizontal directional drilling is significantly higher than figures quoted by TRAHVOL.

The ministry noted the two studies, conducted by American engineering firms Black & Veatch and Power Delivery Consultants, show the direct costs were consistent with the estimates provided by the B.C.

Transmission Corporation, which is approximately twice the estimate put forward the firm used by TRAHVOL.

The two companies hired by the ministry came up with cost estimates between $27 million and $37 million. They also noted burying the lines would add 22 to 27 months to the project.

Pointing out several flaws in the studies, including the more general cost estimates being used instead of more specific quotes, Dunn said it looks like the ministry was engaged in nothing more than a public relations exercise.

"They were just doing a show here for us and not anything really constructive," he said.

As far as a government offer to purchase homes, Dunn wonders how much more of a hit his property value will take with new steel towers carrying higher voltage lines behind his home. Dunn, noting his property value has slipped the past three years, said he wouldn't be able to purchase a home elsewhere in Delta without taking out a hefty mortgage.

"If they're willing to give us fair market value for our homes, that's fine. But our assessments have been going down over the last four years because of all of this, yet they tell us in the same breathe that it doesn't affect our assessments."

Karsten Holmsen, who is planning a lawsuit seeking compensation, also wonders how much the government would offer for homes that would be resold. He said homeowners should not receive a government assessment of property values but, at the very least, a market value based what their homes are worth prior to the installation of the towers.

Following this week's announcement, Neufeld told the Optimist he's disappointed at the accusation his ministry was engaged in a public relations exercise, pointing out both firms which conducted the review have superb reputations and experience when it comes to horizontal directional drilling.

Also pointing out the power lines were in place before the homes were built, the minister noted that 78 wooden poles will be replaced by 20 steel ones. Just nine will be in the middle of the 50-year-old residential right-of-way.

"Nine back yards will be impacted by a single steel pole and it's all highly within acceptable ranges of EMF (electromagnetic field)," said Neufeld.

In 2006, the British Columbia Utilities Commission allowed BCTC to upgrade the current overhead lines with the new towers. Concerned about the health dangers of intensified electromagnetic fields, TRAHVOL later lost a court challenge for the commission to consider the precautionary principle.

The B.C Environmental Assessment Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency also granted their approvals.

© Delta Optimist 2008

Tsawwassen residents living along a controversial electricity corridor may be offered buyouts on their homes, Energy Minister Richard Neufeld said Monday.

Neufeld said, however, that the government has made no final decision to offer buyouts to homeowners living beneath a set of high voltage lines that deliver electricity to Vancouver Island.

Buyouts have been rumoured for several months but Monday's statement, contained in a news release, was the first formal indication that the government is willing to consider purchasing the homes of residents who would rather move than live under new, higher-voltage lines which will be installed along the Tsawwassen corridor beginning in June.

Residents have made several unsuccessful attempts to have the project detoured, including a failed suit in B.C. Supreme Court.

But short of civil disobedience, they appear to have run out of options.

"I think we will talk to anybody along that route," Neufeld said, adding that he expects the government would not find it difficult to find new buyers for any properties it acquired.

"We haven't absolutely confirmed [buyouts] but we will be willing to talk to people. And at the end of the day I don't think they'd be on the market long. If we had to buy them and resell them I think they'd be off the market fairly quickly."

Residents are concerned about possible health hazards from electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of the lines -- although Neufeld noted that the fields will be substantially lower than thresholds established by the World Health Organization.

At present, the Tsawwassen right-of-way is occupied by 50-year-old power lines that are nearing the end of their lifespan for reliability. BC Transmission Corp. has instructions from the B.C. Utilities Commission to upgrade the route with new, higher voltage lines to maintain security of electricity supply to Vancouver Island.

Also on Monday, the government announced that it has rejected as too costly and time consuming a proposal to bury the new lines underground instead of putting them overhead -- Neufeld said the final cost to bury the lines could reach $100 million compared with $7 million to $8 million for overhead lines.

Cec Dunn, spokesman for Tsawwassen Residents Against High Voltage Overhead Lines, said in a telephone interview that the government's decision to proceed with the overhead project is likely to trigger "outrage" in the community.

He said his home is worth about $200,000 less than a comparable home in another part of the community.

"I'm retired, and I'm supposed to go get a mortgage so we can move away from these power lines?"

ssimpson@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2008