Thanks to everyone who spoke at the hearings - You did great!!
Critics Denounce Power-Line Proposal
By Mitch Tobin
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, ArizonaFriday, 26 September 2003
GREEN VALLEY - Rare is the public hearing where ranchers, environmentalists and the world's largest maker of earth-moving equipment are on the same side. But when federal officials asked Thursday for comments on Tucson Electric Power's plan to run a power line from Sahuarita to Nogales, all they heard was criticism.
At the first of four hearings in Southern Arizona, all 17 speakers attacked the $75 million plan, which is meant to improve electric reliability in Santa Cruz County and let TEP sell and buy power in Mexico.
Past blackouts around Nogales prompted the Arizona Corporation Commission in 1999 to mandate the building of another link between the border city and the Western power grid. Because TEP wants to extend the line into Mexico, it also needs a "presidential permit" from the Department of Energy.
Nearly half of the 66-mile proposed route would run through the Coronado National Forest, where nearly 200 140-foot power poles, mostly slender "mono-poles," would be erected in the mountains west of Interstate 19. The Coronado must also bless the plan but has yet to weigh in. The only speakers who didn't condemn the plan outright were from Caterpillar Inc., which has a 6,000-acre proving ground west of Green Valley that the power line would cross. Manager Matt Turner said he didn't oppose the route, but if it isn't detoured around the $30 million facility, "it could seriously impact our business" and create safety risks.
TEP spokesman Joe Salkowski said opposition at the hearing didn't reflect that "there's plenty of people in Nogales who'd be happy to see this line built." Salkowski said the project would also help Tucson because it could buy power from the south, while the environment in Mexico would benefit if the power line
forestalled the building of generating plants there.
Although none spoke at the first of two meetings Thursday, some area residents support the proposed route - the westernmost of three options - since it would be farther from their homes than the other two.
Many speakers, however, said no new power line is needed and that Santa Cruz County can be served in other ways. An official with the Maestros Group said her company could build a power plant in Nogales to improve reliability there, and she faulted federal officials for not considering that option.
Critics also said federal officials were too vague in their draft environmental study, which is expected to be finalized in three or four months. Jim Webb of the Marley Cattle Co., one of Southern Arizona's largest working ranches, said he still can't tell where the line will go on the land, but it would surely attract more illegal border crossers.
"The disruption to our operation would be magnificent in its scope," he said. TEP has promised to revegetate disturbed areas and close one mile of road for every one mile it builds. But members of the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society and the Sky Island Alliance said the power line would mar scenery and fragment wildlife habitat for the sake of TEP profits. "We'd like to preserve at least a little bit of America the beautiful," said Phil Gray of the Green Valley Hiking Club.
* Contact reporter Mitch Tobin at 573-4185 or mtobin@azstarnet.com.
