Public hearings will be held in Eureka Springs and Rogers this week to gather comments about a proposed high-voltage transmission line.
Southwestern Electric Power Co. applied April 3 to build a substation near Berryville and to run a 345-kilovolt power line from there to Centerton, about 48 miles away. That would require about 288 towers, averaging from 130 feet to 160 feet tall and cutting a 150-foot-wide path. The project would cost an estimated $116.7 million.
There are six route proposals. The new power line would be primarily in Carroll and Benton counties, but alternate routes could include Madison and Washington counties in Arkansas and Barry and McDonald counties in Missouri.
Public comments will betaken throughout the day Monday at the Inn of the Ozarks at 207 W. Van Buren St. in Eureka Springs and Wednesday at the Embassy Suites at 3303 Pinnacle Hills Parkway in Rogers.
In both cities, public comments will be taken from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., with a one-hour break at noon. The comment period will resume from 6-9 p.m., said John Bethel, executive director of the Arkansas Public Service Commission. If some people haven’t had a chance to speak, the hearing will continue at 9 a.m. the next day.
Connie Griffin will preside over the hearings. She’s an administrative law judge with the commission.
Bethel said that the process is formal, with people being called to a microphone to testify, and that a court reporter will recordthe testimony. Written testimony can also be submitted at the hearings, emailed to the commission or sent by mail.
Bethel said people can come and go during the hearings as long as they don’t disrupt the proceedings.
Registration to speak will begin an hour before each hearing, Griffin said in an order Wednesday. Speakers will be taken in the order in which they signed up on a sign-in sheet. Public comments will be limited to 3 minutes. Griffin wrote that speakers should be “brief, to the point and non-redundant.”
“Disruptive conduct … will not be tolerated,” shewrote.
Bethel said representatives from Southwestern Electric Power Co. will be on hand to answer questions from the public before and after the meetings.
Thousands of people already have filed public comments with the commissionopposing the transmission line. Forty-eight landowners filed to intervene in the process. Three of them have since filed motions to withdraw for various reasons.
The transmission line is opposed by the Carroll County Quorum Court and Beaver, Bentonville, Cave Springs, Eureka Springs, Garfield, Gateway and Springdale. Opponents argue that the line will mar mountaintop vistas and pass too near tourist attractions, including Thorncrown Chapel and the Great Passion Play near Eureka Springs.
The Eureka Springs City Council passed a resolution April 30 saying it opposed five of the six routes. The route the City Council didn’t object to is about two miles south of the city and is the utility’s least-preferred route.
Other concerns include herbicide use to clear the right of way, which could affect drinking water and wildlife, and whether borehole drilling for the towers will damage underground caves.
In its application, the utility stated that the transmission line and new powerstation near Berryville are necessary to meet growing demands for electricity in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri.
A final hearing on the transmission line will be Aug. 26 at the Public Service Commission building in Little Rock.
“That hearing will be very much like a trial,” said Bethel. It could last several days.
The process for the hearing is explained in Arkansas Code Annotated 23-18-501 through 23-18-530.
The commission isn’t bound by any of the routes proposed by the utility, Bethel said.
The commission could use a combination of the proposed routes or come up with a new route, he said.
Information on the application and subsequent filings is available on the commission’s website at apscservices.info under the section “hot topics.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 07/14/2013