BCTC backs down on Tsawwassen power lines
Chad Skelton and Richard Chu
Vancouver Sun
March 18, 2005
Company will find new route for proposed high-voltage transmission lines
"Costs are an important consideration, and so are other factors such as aesthetics, socio-economic and environmental impacts. We will now turn our attention to developing an alternative option; this work will take several months." BCTC CEO Michael Costello (link)
DELTA - Tsawwassen residents won a major victory Thursday when B.C. Transmission Corp. backed down from a plan to build high-voltage power lines through their neighbourhoods.
In a letter to Delta South Liberal MLA Val Roddick and Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, the utility vowed not to replace the wooden power poles that currently exist along the company's right-of-way with 30-metre high steel towers.
Residents in the area have been lobbying against the proposal for months, concerned that the towers would be unsightly and that the increased voltage (from 138 kilovolts to 230) could pose health risks to residents.
When the existing power lines were built in Tsawwassen in the 1950s, most of the area was farmland.
But suburban homes now back onto the lines in many locations.
Maureen Broadfoot, spokeswoman for the Tsawwassen Residents Against High Voltage Overhead Lines, was ecstatic when she heard the news Thursday morning.
"We're pleased right now that at least this upgrade won't be going through our residential areas," she said.
The new lines were part of a $200-million project to upgrade transmission services to Vancouver Island.
Donna McGeachie, community affairs manager for BCTC, said the company will begin exploring alternative routes for the lines.
"We've got a number of alternatives that we've identified and some that the residents have identified," she said. "Those alternatives include going along Highway 17 or tunnelling underneath Tsawwassen.
McGeachie said all the alternatives are more costly and will likely increase the cost of the project by anywhere from $18 million to $35 million.
"Any other route we go through is bound to be longer, so that adds to the cost," she said.
McGeachie said the increased cost will be passed on to the energy companies that use the transmission lines, including BC Hydro, which will likely pass the cost on to customers.
The project to build new transmission lines to Vancouver Island is complex, requiring environmental approvals from the provincial and federal governments as well as U.S. authorities because 12 kilometres of the undersea cables will run through the U.S.
McGeachie said Thursday's decision will only affect four kilometres of the 69-kilometre route and is not expected to delay the project. BCTC still expects to make its application to the B.C. Utilities Commission in June.
BCTC hopes to have a new system of power lines to the Island operational by the fall of 2008, McGeachie said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005