Citizens uniting

When it rains environmental concerns in the Ozarks, also known as God’s Country, it really does pour.

Just ask all those folks in Eureka Springs who are up in arms today over Southwestern Electric Power’s little-known proposal (certainly new to me, anyway) that would run a high-voltage, 345-kilovolt transmission line near Centerton across Carroll County to a power station at the tranquil Kings River.

The proposed transmission line comes as a deeply controversial industrial hog farm completes work on two barns that will confine up to 6,500 swine along Big Creek, a tributary of the pristine Buffalo National River that meanders through the scenic Ozarks about five miles downstream.

SWEPCO’s proposal has aroused anger and deep suspicion among many citizens and residents of Carroll County, especially around Eureka Springs where even a local weekly newspaper is asking what the power company isn’t telling people about its goals and intentions.

Resident Roger Shepperd, who helped organize a recent meeting attended by at least 150 citizens, was quoted as calling the idea “a power line to nowhere.”

He said it’s his understanding that there’s not an electric-generating station on the Benton County end and no large users on the Berryville end to warrant such an enormous line.

A news account by Becky Gillette of the Eureka Springs Independent says SWEPCO wants to build the line to meet expected future power demands on both ends of the line. But Shepperd says he’s combed through records of the Southwest Power Pool, a regional power transmission organization, and can find nothing mentioned about potential needs in the coming 20 years for such a large line on either end. So what gives?

The bottom line is a growing number of folks in Carroll County are wondering what lies at the heart of the power company’s push to tear an unsightly and wide swath through the timbers to a location near the Kings River. Sure seems like a legitimate question to me.

Gillette writes there are six potential routes under consideration for the proposed transmission line. She also notes that SWEPCO spokesman Peter Main sent her an email saying the proposed line on its westernmost end would link to one of similar power at Flint Creek and Shipe Road, and to a new station at Centerton. At Kings River Station on the eastern end, the line would reinforce power needs on that end by connecting with two existing lower-power lines. There, a transformer would step down the voltage to accommodate both lines.

The power company contends it needs this line for whatever its reasoning and has jumped through the legal and environmental hoops to get ’er done.

But growing numbers of property owners and others (in Carroll Countyand Eureka Springs especially) don’t want their property values, scenic beauty, environment and the tourism that city depends upon affected negatively by what amounts to a power superhighway that they don’t see as even close to being necessary.

Growing numbers want the project stopped entirely based on what some claim is a flawed environmental impact statement and because they say the Arkansas Public Service Commission isn’t even addressing the needs and concerns of individual landowners.

The commission is taking arguments over the line until May 2, but a request for an extension is expected.

Already there is talk of retaining an attorney (I can already smell the apples from those fundraising pie suppers) and gathering support for their cause that appears to have gotten littlepublicity thus far. They’ve established a Web page, SavetheOzarks.com, to explain all the details.

Resident Mark Armstrong, another organizer of that recent meeting, said one of the most shocking aspects is thatthe power line just makes no sense to so many people since it hasn’t been properly justified or explained.

He also contends that SWEPCO based its proposal on erroneous information gathered in 2007 before the worldwide recession of 2008.

And so, valued readers, like a dust devil turned tornado or a breeze that becomes a hurricane, stay tuned for yet another fight by concerned taxpayers and voters trying to do all they can to preserve the God-given gift and environmental quality of our cherished Ozarks.

Hog-farm protest today

Those who enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the Buffalo National River enough to speak against the industrial hog farm smack dab in the middle of the pristine river’s watershed will have the opportunity to make their voice heard publicly today as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack comes to the University of Arkansas Law School to speak.

The local Farm Service Agency (under the USDA) approved the tax-supported loan for that state Department of Environmental Quality-permitted facility capable of raising 6,500 swine, also supported by food processor Cargill Inc.

The gathering of concerned citizens will convene at noon outside the law school (corner of Maple and Garland on the campus). Whoooo pig!

Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.