Residents riled over planned power line upgrades

Rob Wiltzen
Gulf Islands Driftwood
Wednesday, February 02, 2005

The British Columbia Transmission Corporation (BCTC) will host upcoming community information sessions on the Gulf Islands regarding a proposed project to replace and upgrade existing transmission lines from Delta to Vancouver Island via Galiano and Salt Spring.

The Vancouver Island Transmission Reinforcement Project would see two 138-Kv AC and two high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) circuits replaced with two 230-Kv AC circuits in a two-phase project.

" The existing submarine cables and the infrastructure that supports them are 35 to 50 years old, including the HVDC and AC circuits of the southern corridor," said Donna McGeachie, BCTC community affairs manager.

" The upgrade is necessary to meet the growing demand in the Gulf Islands and on Vancouver Island," she said. "The load forecast from BC Hydro is that the demand will grow by almost 30 per cent over the next 20 years."

The existing 138-Kv overhead wires and undersea cables are currently serving Galiano and Salt Spring with one circuit, while providing emergency backup for Vancouver Island with the other.

Phase 1 of the project would see one cable replaced with a 230-Kv line to serve growing demand on Vancouver Island, a replacement of existing poles and tall lattice towers with single steel poles approximately the same height, replacement of all overhead lines and a portion of the undersea cables. The earliest Phase I in-service date would be October 2008.

The existing rights of way are the preferred route option for BCTC, including overland routes from Taylor Bay terminal to Montague Harbour on Galiano and from Maracaibo terminal to Sansum Narrows on Salt Spring.

In Tsawwassen, residents have organized to protest the plan to replace overhead wires through residential areas with higher voltage cables by forming the Tsawwassen Residents Against High Voltage Overhead Lines (TRAHVOL). Likewise, on Salt Spring, opposition to the upgraded lines across the island has spawned the Island Residents Against High Voltage Overhead Lines (IRAHVOL). The local campaign kicks off with a community information strategy meeting on Saturday, February 5 at 4 p.m. at Meaden Hall for all concerned residents.

" We encourage all residents concerned or living near the overhead power line corridor to attend," said Barbara Turner of IRAHVOL. "We will have a representative attending from the Tsawwassen organization, TRAHVOL and a panel discussion regarding the issues. We’d like to present as much information as possible to those affected."

" The objection is to the effect that it will have to the residents who live in proximity to the overhead lines and who will, through no fault of their own, be subject to hugely increased levels of electromagnetic radiation and suffer severe property devaluation," said Chris Anderson, a local EMR tester.
" There are safe methods of distributing power and stringing high voltage AC lines around residential areas is not one of them," he said. "A far superior way of distributing electricity is a method of underground DC cabling called DC light."
The next year, according to McGeachie, will be spent doing environmental assessment work, including health-impact studies.

" Even with the upgrade to the higher voltage, because of the new pole configuration, we expect that the electromagnetic fields will be less," she said.
The BCTC information sessions take place on Saturday, February 5 at the Galiano Lions Club Hall between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., and on Saturday, February 12 at the Salt Spring Lions Hall between 12:30 and 4 p.m.

" The BCTC project manager and project engineers will be on hand to address any technical and operational information requests," said McGeachie.

Anyone wishing to contact IRAHVOL, can call Barbara Turner at 537-0063, Enid Turner at 537-9153 or email geturner@telus.net.

E-mail the writer: Rob Wiltzen

See also the TRAHVOL website, www.trahvol.com: Tsawwassen Residents Against High Voltage Overhead Lines.