HECO to assess impact
of proposed utility lineThe assessment will cost $500,000
but will not delay the project
Hawaiian Electric Co. announced yesterday that it will perform an environmental assessment of its proposed underground 46-kilovolt utility line through Ala Moana and McCully neighborhoods.
The assessment will include an analysis of issues such as construction impacts and the effects of electric and magnetic fields, the company said.
A HECO statement said the company will voluntarily perform the study to address concerns raised by neighbors after the 3-mile route was announced in October.
Henry Curtis, executive director of the environmental watchdog group Life of the Land, said yesterday he believes that HECO would have been required to do an environmental assessment because the project involves public streets.
An assessment will cost $500,000 and take about nine months but should not delay the project since much of the work can be done simultaneously with design and planning work, HECO said.
"Voluntarily performing the EA should keep this vital project on track," said Robbie Alm, HECO senior vice president of public affairs. "Oahu's electrical system is already at risk, and that risk will only increase with time."
Curtis criticized the utility for filing the application for the $59 million project with the Public Utilities Commission the week before Christmas, forcing anyone who wants to review the three-volume submittal to do so over the holidays.
Life of the Land was one of three groups that successfully opposed HECO building a 138-kilovolt power line atop Waahila Ridge. The underground project in McCully and Ala Moana neighborhoods is a scaled-back alternative to that route.
If approved by the commission, the project is planned for two phases:
>> Phase 1, projected for construction in 2005-2006, would run one mile from the Makaloa electric substation at Amana and Makaloa streets, along Makaloa Street, Kalakaua Avenue and Fern and Lime streets to the McCully substation at Pumehana.The utility estimates that the $59 million project, whose cost includes more than $15 million spent on the rejected Waahila Ridge line, could eventually cost the average electric consumer about $1 a month.>> Phase 2, projected for 2007-2008, would run 1.9 miles from the Archer substation on Cooke Street to Young and McCully streets.