MILLS RIVER — Citing stresses to property owners who are uncertain if they will be impacted by a high-voltage transmission line plan, Duke Energy officials announced Friday that they are hastening a decision to choose a single route.
Duke officials had initially planned to name a route in January; the company will now select a line in early October.
That announcement came as the Mills River Town Council on Friday adopted a resolution opposing transmission lines in that municipality. Polk County commissioners had taken a similar stance earlier in the week.
Duke Energy recently extended a public comment period to Aug. 31, and has already received more than 3,000 comments on the line placement. Those comments are being thoroughly reviewed, said Robert Sipes, Duke Energy’s Western North Carolina regional general manager.
“We’ve been listening closely to potentially impacted communities and landowners along the study routes and have heard overwhelmingly from them the need to expedite the review process to reduce the period of uncertainty for selecting the final route,” Sipes said in a statement. “We’ve expanded our team, accelerated the schedule and are committing to complete our comprehensive process for route selection by early October.”
The 230-kilovolt transmission line project would bring power from Campobello, South Carolina to Asheville to keep pace with expected growth in that city, Duke officials have said. Last month, the power company released a map showing several potential routes, sparking a contentious process that has drawn concern — and sometimes rage — throughout the five counties that may be impacted by latticed towers averaging 140-feet in height.
On Friday, about 100 people gathered for a special session of the Mills River Town Council, where that board passed a resolution opposing lines for a host of reasons: They would endanger the water supply, harm homes and businesses and, in a particular point of pride for the rural community, would damage agricultural land.
Jeff Chandler, director of the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Center of North Carolina State University, pointed to one tract of land that his institution may lose should a transmission line come through and said the group opposes the project.
“We have a large presence here because of our geography from Raleigh. We were established to help agriculture in Western North Carolina,” he said, adding that their work has focused on research like developing a late-season blight resistant tomato, but has expanded into a burgeoning ornamentals industry of late.
Before the council adopted the resolution, others cited environmental concerns — one line would cross Mills River three times — or tourism in Henderson County, dependent on mountain views.
Some fought tears, like Dottie Davis, who remembered leading an effort to incorporate Mills River.
“We wanted at that time to maintain our rural, mountain way of life for our children and the only way to do that was to control your own destiny,” she remembered.
She remains proud that her town has kept its identity, and said she is prepared to once again fight for Mills River. “I’ll be damned if I am going to let Duke Power ruin it,” she told the crowd.
Several residents said they were concerned Duke Energy was using a “divide and conquer” strategy, with grassroots groups taking up for their own home base, but neglecting the bigger picture.
The way the lines are currently drawn, leading to a planned natural gas-fired plant at Lake Julian, one route must either pass through Fletcher or neighboring Mills River, where Jim Sexton lives.
“Nobody wants to be thrown under the bus, but when Fletcher says, ‘Don’t put it here,’ what they are saying is, ‘Put it in Mills River,'” Sexton said. “We all need to come together in this. The best solution is no transmission lines. Period.”
In rural regions, opponents are particularly vexed that view sheds will be scarred, and fear a transmission line will run up mountains and mar views critical to the region.
That is an issue Duke is taking into consideration in its decision, said Duke spokesman Tom Williams in an email.
“Regarding vistas, we do consider view shed meaning visual impact as opposed to direct impact on a property,” he wrote. “I would also say that, based on public input, we will weight certain factors such as view shed more heavily than others. The Shuler Line through Panthertown Valley is an example of this. This was built in the early 1990 and is a major line connecting (then-named) Duke Power the Tennessee Valley Authority.”
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