Forest Service Issues Final Decision on AEP Transmission Line in VA

December 31, 2002—The Forest Service released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the Record of Decision to allow the proposed 765 kV transmission line to cross the Jefferson National Forest in southwest Virginia. The crossing will be a single one, in the same location where the A.T. is crossed by I-77 in Bland County. While negative impacts will occur, this is the least-impact alternative for the A.T. More details are available on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests Web site.

Issue Background

Since 1990, the Appalachian Trail Conference and the Roanoke A.T. Club (RATC) have been seeking rerouting of a 765,000-volt powerline, with its huge towers, proposed by American Electric Power (AEP, formerly APCo) to run from Wyoming, W.Va., to Cloverdale, Va., terminating at a substation just east of the Appalachian Trail. The Trail community's position is that the line should cross the Trail only once, in an appropriate location. The proposal and various alternatives could have affected up to 34 miles of the Trail directly and 84 to 115 miles indirectly.

In 1992, a Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) hearing examiner approved a proposed route with minor modifications to reduce the impacts on the Trail, but West Virginia officials rejected the route application for lack of information. Three years later, Virginia officials asked the utility to evaluate alternatives that would remove the line from Carvins Cove along the A.T. and avoid crossing Sinking Creek Valley, also crossed by the A.T.

In June 1996, the Jefferson-George Washington National Forests and the National Park Service issued a draft environmental-impact statement that stated their preference to deny permission for the line to cross federal lands, because the impacts were too significant and could not be mitigated satisfactorily.

In September 1997, the company issued a revised proposal, including alternate routes that would not cross Forest Service land but still would harm the Trail's viewshed. The Outdoor Club of Virginia Tech (OCVT) joined ATC and RATC in protest, along with the many new communities affected.

In late 1998, the Virginia agency required AEP to study a new set of routes with a non-Cloverdale terminus, all of which would be superior to the earlier proposals. RATC, OCVT, and ATC continued to provide input, including testimony for an evidentiary hearing on the new Jackson's Ferry routes in May 2000.

On October 2, 2000, the commission's hearing examiner for the AEP case released his recommended actions, endorsing the selection of a route from Wyoming, W.Va., to Jackson's Ferry, Va., that crosses the A.T. on what ATC has come to call the I-77 route. That is the location that ATC originally recommended to AEP more than ten years ago and championed through the most recent set of investigations and hearings.

On May 31, 2001, the commission approved construction of the Wyoming to Jackson's Ferry line. Before construction can begin, environmental impact statements from the Forest Service and other involved government agencies will be updated and opened for public review and comment—a process that can take up to 18 months.

You can find out more about the Forest Service's environmental impact statement and review process on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests Web site.