Image of high voltage power lines from the Dominion Power website.Over 800 residents came out to a town meeting hosted by Del. Bob Marshall (R-13th District) Jan. 12 at Battlefield High School to discuss the proposed high-voltage Haymarket power lines, especially the “The New Road Alternative Route” proposed to run through Prince William's Rural Crescent.
The vast majority of residents opposed the 230Kv transmission lines and substation, saying it would hurt their home values, view sheds, character of their neighborhoods and possibly pose health risks.
See the various proposed routes here.
Haymarket/Bristow Beat spoke with Elena Schlossberg, administer of the website protectpwc.org, which opposes the Haymarket power lines and keeps residents informed of the progression.
Schlossberg said the objective of her group has been to unite the larger community in opposition to multiple routes, thus discouraging Haymarket communities from turning on each other. As a unified voice, they have advocated for the Hybrid Alternative Route along I-66.
“It’s about all of the plans," Schlossberg said. "The group was organized to talk about the New Road Route, but what we’re really saying is we don’t accept any of the routes. It is about telling Dominion that the only acceptable route is I-66, which is less than half the distance [of the New Road Route].”
Schlossberg said her group advocates for the I-66 route since it would have the least impact on residents. She notes that The New Road Route [through Haymarket’s side of the Rural Crescent] is probably the most expensive option since it is 12.2 miles long, whereas the I-66 Hybrid Route at 5.8 miles is the shortest option.
However, Dominion said the fact that the I-66 Hybrid Route is partially buried makes it expensive.
Dominion Power spokesperson Chuck Penn estimated the I-66 hybrid line would cost $140 million due to burying. In comparison, Penn said the route along the railroad tracks would have costed an estimated $62.5 million. He said the costs of other routes have not yet been estimated.
But the high cost of burying power lines is news to many residents, who believe shorter routes would equate to less money.
As for Dominion, their initial plan was a shorter route, the Railroad Alternative. However, that proposal was met with fierce opposition from the communities of Greenhill Crossing in Gainesville and Somerset Crossing in Haymarket.
Furthermore, recently the option along the railroad was blocked when Somerset Crossing’s HOA granted an easement to the county. The easement grants the county land on which to create a nature trail. The Board of County Supervisors accepted that easement on Dec. 16, 2014.
The easement now leaves fewer choices for Dominion. However, Dominion maintains that they do not choose the power line route, but simply provide options and a recommended route to the State Corporation Commission who is the final arbiter.
The other concern residents brought up at the town hall was the reason for the high voltage power lines. They are being constructed primarily to serve a new data center coming into the area, which is rumored to be Amazon.
“This is a bad deal. This is really bad on many different levels,” Schlossberg said, noting thousands of residents should not fit the bill for one corporate user.
Del. Bob Marshall wrote a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, requesting that Amazon considered relocating their data center to Prince William's Innovation Park, which already has one data center. Innovation, it could be argued, is also a more suitable location because it's in an industrially-zoned area of the county.
Penn said he would not comment if the Haymarket power lines would still be required should the data center relocate, saying he did not want to speculate. He also said Dominion may still propose more alternative routes.
However, Marshall, in cooperation with Virginia State Senator Dick Black (R-13th District), is preparing to propose new state legislation that would limit data centers to industrial areas that can accommodate the additional power requirements.
Chairman Corey Stewart (R) of the Board of County Supervisors and Gainesville Supervisor Pete Candland (R) both also oppose the New Road power lines and are in favor of the I-66 route. However, they also want the new data center. Both supervisors believe having the data center will be good way to diversify the county’s tax base.
Yet Stewart and Candland said they recognized the citizens' concerns, and would consider passing county legislation to make sure data centers only move into areas that are specifically zoned industrial-use, or requiring data centers seek special use permits from the county.
Schlossberg called their responses “nuanced but smart,” explaining “No one is saying we don’t want Amazon.”
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