Our Side of
The Story
Our Side of
The Story
The Star-Bulletin's March 26 editorial on the Waahila Ridge transmission line was highly disappointing. The power line's opponents do not, as stated in the editorial, prefer an underground line. They do not want ANY line built because it is not needed. Power lines are
not needed at WaahilaIf the proposed 138kV line had been installed 30 years ago, when first proposed, it would have prevented only one regional 40-minute power failure in 1987. There are already backup lines for the existing 138kV transmission circuits on Oahu. At a cost of more than $30 million it might save us only an hour or so of down time every few decades, if that. Far more frequent are localized power failures due to falling tree limbs and downed telephone poles.
Eight large poles, not two, are targeted for the conservation area. The new poles will be massive steel structures up to three times the height of the current 30-year-old wood poles.
The editorial trivializes the view plane degradation as if it were a minor inconvenience and all but congratulates Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) for its "efforts" to ameliorate it with some insignificant plantings. What about the areas that will be doused with herbicides down to bare earth? Important intangibles were ignored such as the affect on tourism and the reputation of Hawaii around the world for its pristine beauty.
Decentralized distribution of electric power should not be written off. Sacramento canceled a power plant because all the city's growth in electricity usage was found to be fully supplied by installation of solar photovoltaics around the city. The New York Power Authority is installing ten 44-megawatt gas-fired turbine generators in six city locations in anticipation of peak demands this summer. They are definitely not building new transmission lines to bring in power from outside. The national trend is to decentralize for reliability, not the opposite.
We take issue with the editorial's suggestion the power lines could eventually be removed when obsolete. The fragility of the terrain up there, geologically and biologically, is of real concern. There is a distinct risk of creating a landslide onto those who live below; those slopes are unstable. The construction of the line is bad enough. To go up there with heavy equipment and tear out the poles and lines might create more damage and danger than the original construction.
The cost of undergrounding the line would be about $4 per year for a typical residential bill. We would rather not have the line at all, but if it has to go in, putting it underground would not be burdensome to the ratepayers.
More than 3,000 people from all over the island signed the anti-power line petition that was presented to the Board of Land and Natural Resources at a March 22 hearing. Calls were also received from all over Oahu in response to the anti-power line ad published four days before the hearing. Grassroots opposition is island-wide.
"Power poles do not last forever," but almost forever. It will be a point of no return. HECO will have a vested interest in these lines and have no incentive to move quickly into environmentally sound directions that new technologies are bringing forth. Nor do endangered plants, recreational sites and quality of life last forever.
Jim Harwood of Manoa is a member of
Malama O Manoa, a citizens' group opposed
to the installation of power lines at Waahila
Ridge. This essay was also signed by
52 other persons.