TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Residents Look At Power Line Route

ADVERTISEMENT

By KENNETH KNIGHT

kknight@tampatrib.com

Published: November 5, 2008

TAMPA PALMS - The planned route of Progress Energy's proposed high-power transmission line through Tampa Palms hardly caused a stir during an open house event last week.

Progress Energy officials recorded 35 signatures during the 31/2 hour session Oct. 28 at St. James United Methodist Church on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Progress Energy spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said.

Company workers set up large charts and aerial maps in the auditorium and brought in 25 employees to answer questions about Progress Energy's plans to select potential power-line transmission routes in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties.

The utility held viewing sessions in Tampa Palms, Lakeland and Northdale last week to gather public comments about its plans to install higher voltage lines and new poles.

Among residents who stopped by to view the route was Sylvia Burney of Lutz.

The Crenshaw Lake Road homeowner has opposed the power line for 20 years, said Burney's neighbor, Nadja Whalen. Worries about potential health risks of having high-voltage power lines close to homes led Burney to hold protest meetings at her home.

Burney said she no longer has the will to fight the utility's plans.

"We have had it for 20 years now, and no one has gotten sick," Burney said.

Jacobs said Progress Energy is seeking state permission to install 230-kilovolt lines in the existing power line easement that bisects Tampa Palms and other communities in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties. The existing 115-kilovolt line was built in 1952.

The utility company will not need to expand its existing right of way, which is 100 feet, in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, she said: "It follows the exact path of the existing lines."

However, the company might need to widen its right of way up to 40 feet in some parts of Polk County, she said.

The 230,000-volt lines would be suspended from single steel or H-frame poles ranging from 90 feet to 120 feet tall, replacing the existing lattice-style transmission poles. The poles could be higher in some locations, Jacobs said.

If the project is approved, construction would begin in 2012 and be completed in 2016.
Tampa Palms resident Warren Dixon III said he attended the open house to find out more about the transmission line's magnetic fields. After a conversation with a utility worker Gene Rastoni, Dixon left with a smile.

"I think you answered my question," Dixon told Rastoni.

The Tampa Palms segment is a small portion of the 50-mile Kathleen line corridor and a sliver of the entire 200-mile project.

The power lines, which will cut across nine counties, are needed to carry power from the utility's proposed nuclear plant in Levy County. If approved by federal regulators, the two-reactor project would begin generating power in 2017.

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813) 865-4842

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT