Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette, June 24, 2007

PARENTS LEAD FIGHT AGAINST POWER LINE

[Rachel's introduction: Because scientific studies relating power lines to leukemia are contradictory, Mr. Morgan has proposed a policy called "prudent avoidance," suggesting power companies limit exposure whenever possible through modest investments of money and effort.]

By Janice Crompton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Plans for a high-voltage power line through Washington and Greene counties have met with heavy opposition from property owners, creating what has been estimated by local officials to be the loudest citizens outcry in a generation.

But one group of residents in particular has mobilized to fight the plan like no other. Parents.

April Ricci, of Jefferson, Greene County, is determined to stop plans by Allegheny Power to construct a 37-mile, 500-kilovolt power line near the home she shares with husband, Albert Ricci III, and their three children, ages 11, 8 and 5. The line would also pass within 1.5 miles of the Jefferson-Morgan Elementary School.

Ms. Ricci has distributed petitions door-to-door, attended numerous meetings and gatherings, and organized opposition forces.

Although the line will not run through her property, Ms. Ricci's resistance is perhaps fiercer than that of her neighbors due to the death of her infant daughter 13 years ago.

The couple's first daughter, Sarah, was born with a rare tumor in her heart and lived only one day. Doctors were baffled, Ms. Ricci said, telling her that the odds of such a mass were about 10 million to one. They could not determine the cause, and ran tests to rule out genetic abnormalities.

She granted doctors' requests to keep her daughter's heart for further testing.

"When I was pregnant, I never drank, smoked, or even took a Tylenol," she remembers.

Living in Georgia at the time, the couple, who were from southwestern Pennsylvania, returned home confused and heartbroken.

"I just thought, 'Why did this happen to me? I'm being punished for something.' "

The couple went on to have three healthy children at their home in Greene County with memories of little Sarah and still no clue what killed her.

It wasn't until Allegheny Power began unveiling its plans for the power line that would be strung on 120-foot to 140-foot towers, that the Riccis began thinking about the possible correlation between Sarah's death and similar towers near their home in Georgia.

The couple lived and worked near high-voltage towers, and Ms. Ricci said she recalled a time when she was pregnant when she and her husband and some friends rode all-terrain vehicles beneath the power lines.

"I heard them crackling," she said of the overhead lines. "It literally gives me the chills now. I think, 'Oh my God, I was so stupid,' I knew nothing."

Protecting their children

The loud crackling and humming of power lines makes property owner Juliann Cernuska wary. She said a sympathetic power company field technician she encountered in the local post office warned her that she "wouldn't believe how loud," the power line would be.

"He said he'd never experienced anything like it," she said.

Allegheny Power purchased an easement in 1976 on the 24-acre property that Ms. Cernuska and her husband Steve bought and built a home on 10 years ago. She estimates the power line right of way will be about a football field away from her home, which fronts on Route 188 in Jefferson.

The Cernuskas are considering moving if the project is approved. Their son Cameron, who turned 7 on Wednesday, suffers from asthma, and Ms. Cernuska questions her parenting abilities if she stays. She has seen health studies and reports that indicate a possible link between childhood leukemia and power lines.

"Do you knowingly drink water that's poisoned? Do you knowingly live in a house with asbestos?" she said. "How can I stay and be a good parent?"

Those feelings of guilt and concern have racked parents all along the power line route, from North Strabane in Washington County, where a new power station is planned, to Dunkard in southern Greene County, where the power line is expected to connect with a junction and continue east 240 miles into Virginia.

The Pennsylvania portion of the line is meant to serve growing energy needs in northern Washington County, according to the power company, while the eastward line will supply northern Virginia, which is in critical need of new energy.

The state Public Utility Commission is expected to take up Allegheny Power's application for the Pennsylvania line this summer with several public hearings.

The U.S. Department of Energy held a hearing earlier this month to gather input on a plan to designate much of the northeastern U.S. as a national interest electric transmission corridor -- or NIETC -- which would give the federal government authority to overrule state decisions involving electric transmission lines under certain conditions.

Ms. Ricci spoke at the hearing, recounting Sarah's story for two DOE panelists and passing out her daughter's photo in the hope of influencing their decision.

If a state denies a permit, makes no decision within one year, or places too many conditions on a power company permit, the Energy Act of 2005 gives the federal government backstop authority to grant construction permits, superseding state and local regulations.

Health risks questioned

Organized opposition, in the form of local officials and a citizens group, Stop The Towers, has discouraged residents from harping on health and safety issues because effects can't be proven and won't be taken under consideration by state or federal authorities.

Despite years of testing and studies, there still isn't enough science to determine the health effects of power lines, according to M. Granger Morgan, an electricity expert who has studied the issue for about a decade.

People are routinely exposed to electromagnetic energy through household appliances, but "because power lines are big and highly visible, they tend to get more attention," said Mr. Morgan, head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr. Morgan serves as chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board, the Electric Power Research Institute Advisory Council and the Scientific and Technical Council for the International Risk Governance Council of Geneva, Switzerland. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute for Electric and Electrical Engineers, and the Society for Risk Analysis.

Exposure to electromagnetic fields -- or EMF -- drops off rapidly with distance in the vicinity of high-voltage power lines, Mr. Morgan said.

There are studies that have indicated a possible link between EMF, childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer. Because childhood leukemia is fairly rare, affecting about one in 14,000 children, according to Mr. Morgan, it has been difficult to study, and there is not a clear connection with EMF.

Still, specific findings involving power lines have included biological changes in animals, such as effects on melatonin and other hormone levels, and changes in molecules and cells in the body.

Prudent avoidance

Because of the findings and lack of concrete evidence so far, Mr. Morgan has proposed a policy called "prudent avoidance," suggesting power companies limit exposure whenever possible through modest investments of money and effort. Meant to be a common sense approach, it argues against drastic action or inaction until science provides a clearer picture of risk.

Some property owners have complained about the size of the 200-foot right of ways used for the towers, but the company says cutting such a large swath not only protects against falling lines, it lessens the effects of EMF as well.

"If you're standing at the edge of our right of way, you're not getting any more exposure than if you were standing in front of an appliance in your home," said company spokesman David Neurohr.

"Common sense is why you have a right of way and a buffer zone," he said.

April Ricci and other parents have said they want to see power companies further study the effects of EMF and power lines. They are also promoting the possibility that power lines near Jefferson-Morgan Elementary be buried, perhaps in the abundant mining shafts that have been abandoned over the years.

Unless they can prove it's not technologically feasible, electric utilities in Connecticut now are required to bury power lines near schools, playgrounds, and day care facilities, thanks to a law that was designed to be a precautionary measure against possible EMF exposure. The cost to bury utility lines is significantly higher than above-ground construction.

"Why would they pass a law if there was nothing to it?" said Ms. Ricci. "How much money can you put on a person's life? How many people have to die?"

(Janice Crompton can be reached at jcrompton@post-gazette.com or 724-223-0156.)

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