Existing route urged for new power line

AUGUSTA – A new power line across eastern Maine should be built in an existing utility corridor rather than cutting a new swath through the woods, the Board of Environmental Protection said Monday.

Without taking a formal vote, the board asked the staff of the Department of Environmental Protection to draft an order directing Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. to further examine the possibility of building the new line next to a logging road and gas pipeline or adjacent to an existing power line that avoids a sensitive region of Washington County.

The power company had applied to build an 84-mile line running from Baileyville to Orrington, largely through the woods in a region dotted with lakes and streams. The line, which would bring power from New Brunswick to Maine, would cross land owned by International Paper Co. for nearly half its route.

The paper company wants the line to be built right next to its Stud Mill Road, which already is bordered by a natural gas pipeline. Either way, the line would cross two rivers in Washington County that are home to populations of wild Atlantic salmon, a federally endangered species.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine wants the line built next to another one owned by Maine Power Co., which runs from Orrington to Chester and then east to Orient. This route would completely avoid the salmon rivers, which are the Machias and Narraguagus.

Most of the nine members of the BEP who were in attendance said they would like to see the new line built next to the Stud Mill Road. Two said they favored the MEPCO route, even though an official from New Brunswick Power said his company would not build a connecting line to that location because it is too far north.

Sprawl is the biggest issue facing policy makers in Maine, said board chairman John Tewhey, a consultant from Gorham.

“We don’t willy-nilly … put things where we want them,” whether they be factories, houses or utility lines, he said.

Therefore, he said, the new power line should be put in or next to an existing utility corridor.

Two board members, former teacher Melford Pelletier of Soldier Pond and nursing home administrator Irving Faunce of Kennebunkport, said Bangor Hydro and IP should be able to work together to come up with a route agreeable to both companies.

That may not be too likely since Bangor Hydro has sued IP twice in the last two months over the power line route.

The power company first applied to the BEP to build the line in 1990. It received a permit in 1992, which was renewed twice. When the company asked for a third renewal in 1998, the BEP voted to look at the project anew since so much time had passed.

In 1990, Champion International Corp., which merged with IP last year, sent a letter to Bangor Hydro saying it had no objections to the route as proposed. Bangor Hydro contends the letter is a contract. IP, which since has withdrawn its support for the proposed route, said it had “an agreement to agree” but certainly no contract. The lawsuits seek to resolve this dispute.

Much of the debate Monday centered on the environmental damage and visual impact that would be caused by the different routes.

Ernest Hilton, a lawyer from Strong, said if he were canoeing the Machias River, he would much rather pass through one utility corridor than pass separately under a power line, a road and a pipeline.

Pelletier, however, said he grew up in the woods and came to see bridges and power lines as essential to the people they serve.

“These bridges and power lines that bring services to people are there for a reason,” said the registered Maine Guide. “They don’t bother me at all.”

However, Pelletier said he was worried that the board was “being held hostage by New Brunswick Power” because the company said it would not meet up with the MEPCO route that would enter New Brunswick about 90 miles north of where the provincial power company wants it to go.

Freeport lawyer Andrew Cadot said he did not believe New Brunswick Power wouldn’t build a line wherever it had to in order to export its power to the United States.

His first choice, Cadot said, was to build the new line next to the Stud Mill Road with it going under the Machias, Narraguagus and St. Croix rivers. Since that likely would be expensive and the power company wouldn’t do it, Cadot said he would support the MEPCO route.

Although she did not voice an opinion on where the new line should go, Waldo Selectman Kathy Littlefield said she didn’t support the idea of building a second line next to an existing one simply because some people felt the area already was degraded.

She likened the situation to her living on a road with a dump on the end. She wouldn’t want another dump there simply because one was already located there.

The board must decide if there is an alternative route that would have less environmental impact without unreasonably increasing the cost of the project. The board decided increasing costs by up to 20 percent was not unreasonable for the $50 million project.

DEP staff expects to have an order drafted in three weeks. The public then will be allowed to comment on the order for 15 days. The board is expected to vote on accepting the order as its official position in January.