Tsawwassen power line foes to fight underground proposal

Maurice Bridge
Vancouver Sun
07-Sep-2005

TRAHVOL is holding a public meeting tonight, Wednesday, 07-Sep-2005, at 7:30 p.m. at the South Delta Rec Centre.

TRAHVOL website: www.trahvol.com

IRAHVOL website: www.irahvol.org

BCTC VITRP web info: www.bctc.com

BC EAO VITRP website: www.eao.gov.bc.ca

BCUC VITRP website: www.bcuc.com

TSAWWASSEN - A group of Tsawwassen residents who have been fighting attempts to run a pair of high-voltage power lines to Vancouver Island through their neighbourhood are gearing up for another battle.

B.C. Transmission Corp. has applied to the B.C. Utilities Commission for permission to run the lines underground along its right-of-way, which overlaps the property lines of 147 private homes in the area. It says it will use expropriation if it cannot reach an agreement with the property owners.

"They need 21 metres of your backyard to put these two lines in . . . in some cases, it's people's entire yards," Maureen Broadfoot said Tuesday.

Broadfoot is the spokeswoman for Tsawwassen Residents Against Higher Voltage Overhead Lines (TRAHVOL), which fought an earlier proposal to run the lines overhead. She said TRAHVOL was promised by the premier, local MLA Val Roddick and the former chair of BCTC that they would not recommend construction of an overhead line.

The residents are opposed to both overhead and underground power lines because of fears of adverse health risks, including cancer.

TRAHVOL says the electro-magnetic field (EMF) levels of the new underground lines would be almost 200 times higher than the World Health Organization warning level for childhood leukemia and other adverse health risks.

BCTC says its proposal strictly adheres to all public health, safety and environmental protection standards and is well below the precautionary guideline for EMFs endorsed by the WHO.

Broadfoot says in addition to opposing the power lines on health grounds, the residents are upset at the idea of expropriation.

"They've basically said they're going to negotiate with us, although three months have gone by and we've not heard boo from them, " Broadfoot said. "If they're unsuccessful, then they'll expropriate."

"The residents' group did our town public consultation, and 100 per cent of the people said, 'Forget it, we're not giving you underground rights.' "

Dennis Maniago, vice-president of system planning and asset management for BCTC, said Tuesday the corporation is not trying to acquire any extra land, but simply wants to make use of its existing right-of-way.

Two overhead power lines are already on the right-of-way, he said.

He said the problem is rooted in a subdivision plan from the 1960s which allowed homes built at the time to use part of the right-of-way as back yards.

"We have had an overhead right-of-way from some 50 years there, it's about 53 metres wide, so what we simply would be looking for is an exchange of overhead rights for underground rights," he said.

"We would be putting it within the right-of-way, which is within their [residents] property."

BCUC is expected to consider the proposal in November, with a decision by February or March.

TRAHVOL is holding a public meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the South Delta Rec Centre.

mbridge@png.canwest.com