Event sheds more light on power line project

More than a dozen blue-shirted Kansas City Power & Light Co. officials filled a large meeting room at the Northwest Technical School in Maryville Wednesday with charts, graphs and posters displaying details about the Midwest Transmission Project.

The project, undertaken in partnership with the Omaha Public Power District, is to lead to construction of a 345-kilovolt line between 160 and 190 miles long from southeastern Nebraska to KCP&L's existing Sibley (Mo.) substation in Jackson County. Plans also call for construction of a substation in Nodaway County south of Maryville.

Wednesday's "open house" followed an informational session earlier this month with members of the Nodaway County Commission and other elected officials from across the region.

This week's event presented much of the same information but was intended for the general public, especially landowners whose property the high-voltage line might cross.

Right now, the project area is defined as a "white map" embracing parts of Otoe, Nemaha and Richardson counties in Nebraska and Atchison, Holt, Nodaway, Andrew, Gentry, Harrison, DeKalb, Daviess, Clinton, Caldwell, Clay, Ray and Jackson counties in Missouri.

The white space will be filled in this fall with lines indicating hundreds of possible routes based, in part, on input from open houses such as the one held in Maryville. A second series of meetings will winnow those alternatives down to three or four options prior to selection of a final route next summer.

Construction is to begin in summer 2015 and last two years.     

Utility managers didn't make formal presentations during Wednesday's event, but rather staffed a series of stations through which those attending could walk at leisure, observing the displays and asking questions.

Details about what the power line will look like were offered at one of the stations by KCP&L Engineer Chris Koch, who said that most of the project will likely consist of twin-pole "H" structures standing at least 90 feet high and supporting 1,000-foot spans of high-voltage cable

Rights-of-way needed to support the galvanized steel towers will be 160 feet wide, or 80 feet on each side of the structure.

Depending on terrain and other factors, parts of the line may also consist of single-pole steel towers standing between 110 and 120 feet tall and supporting spans of cable 600 feet long. The path required for these structures would be 120 feet wide, or 60 feet on each side of the pole.

Landowners granting rights-of-way for the project are to be compensated with one-time payments.

Those unwilling to accommodate towers on their property could be subject to imminent domain proceedings.

The final station at the open house consisted of a bank of computers on which landowners and others could view aerial maps and input information about buildings, planned developments, historical sites, irrigation structures, air strips, churches, cemeteries, wildlife areas and other factors that might affect the line's eventual route.

"These open houses are the first round of opportunity for people to come and give input into the process," said Dan Hegeman, KCP&L's North District community affairs manager.

For the past 30 years, various studies have indicated possible health concerns associated with high-voltage lines, particularly with regard to an increased risk of childhood leukemia.

Paul Ling, an environmental manager for KCP&L, said Wednesday that research findings on the detrimental effects of electromagnetic fields are mixed and largely un-replicated. However, he said, residences and other occupied structures would not be allowed inside the power line right-of-way.

People living or working near the right-of-way, he said, could be subject to an ambient electromagnetic field comparable to that produced by an average-sized single-family home.

Partnership officials estimate construction cost for the new line at  $400 million, and say the effort will create between 60 and 70 construction jobs. The cost will ultimately be paid by electricity customers throughout the Southwest Power Pool, which embraces utilities in Kansas and Oklahoma as well as portions of New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Nebraska.

KCP&L officials have said increased capacity and other efficiencies should ultimately outweigh costs and benefit consumers.