BEP concludes hearings on power line route

BANGOR – After four days of highly technical and often contentious debate, the Board of Environmental Protection on Friday wrapped up public hearings on a proposal from Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. to build a new power line across eastern Maine.

The power company reiterated its position that its proposed route, which would cross land owned by International Paper Co. in Hancock and Washington counties, is the best one. As projected, the 84-mile line from Baileyville to Orrington, would run parallel to, but not adjacent to, the Stud Mill Road, a private east-west logging highway.

The line will transmit power from New Brunswick to Maine, and, ultimately, to the rest of New England. As of next week, Bangor Hydro will be owned by Emera Inc., a Nova Scotia power company.

Bob Broad, an engineer with Commonwealth Associates, a power line design firm in Michigan, said Bangor Hydro looked at four alternative routes and several different power line designs.

“Our preferred route is the best,” he said.

Alternative routes proposed by International Paper and the Natural Resources Council of Maine would require major design changes and would cost much more to build, Broad said.

International Paper, which owns the land along half the distance of Bangor Hydro’s proposed route, wants the line to go right next to the Stud Mill Road, which is already bordered by a natural gas pipeline.

The IP route would cause less damage to rivers that are home to endangered Atlantic salmon, would not open up new routes for all-terrain vehicles and would maintain an unbroken swath of forest, said David Dominie of E-Pro, a Maine engineering firm. It could do all this and still meet the region’s electricity needs, he said.

Joel Swanton, the company’s chief forester for the northern region, said it simply made sense to consolidate all utilities that cross IP land into one corridor rather than cutting new swaths through the forest.

Steve Pelletier, however, a wildlife biologist with Woodlot Alternatives of Topsham, who testified for Bangor Hydro, said if the Stud Mill Road corridor were broadened it would become too wide for many animals to cross and would break up wildlife habitat.

Broad also said it would be dangerous to put a power line so close to a natural gas pipeline. However, he admitted that the Bangor Hydro route would parallel the pipeline for about 12 miles and that protective measures would need to be taken there.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine wants the line to run next to an existing power line that goes from Orrington to Chester and then east to Orient before crossing into New Brunswick.

An official from New Brunswick Power has said that line goes to the wrong place in the province and that his company would not connect with it.

Jerry Bley, a consultant to NRCM, said that the more northerly Maine Power Co. route would cross fewer waterways that have been identified as having statewide or regional significance. It also would avoid two rivers that are home to populations of wild Atlantic salmon, which is an endangered species.

However, a visual impact consultant for Bangor Hydro, Terry DeWan, said the MEPCO route is closer to homes and would affect the people who live there. This impact is more severe than that on canoeists, who would see the line when they were on lakes and rivers near the Bangor Hydro proposed route.

The BEP will deliberate on the issue on Oct. 22 in Augusta and it is expected to make a decision in December.

The board can only approve or disapprove of Bangor Hydro’s proposed route. It cannot suggest that the power line be built along a different route.