Calls for full burial of Northern Pass line
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- Northern Pass
Good evening. My name is Jane Difley, and I am the President/Forester of the Society for the Protection of NH Forests. The Forest Society was founded in 1901 to “perpetuate the forests of New Hampshire through their wise use and their complete reservation in places of special scenic beauty.”
We are headquartered here in Concord, and thanks to our donors we own 54,000 acres of conserved land in New Hampshire, and hold conservation easements on another 130,000 acres. These lands were conserved in order to protect the natural resources from, among other things, commercial developments like Northern Pass.
The current proposed route for Northern Pass detailed here this evening would cross overhead or underground on four of our Forest Reservations, in Clarksville, Stark, Bethlehem and Woodstock. In addition it would cross a number of conservation easements that we hold on land owned by others, including those that specifically prohibit underground and overhead powerlines.
The Forest Society believes that Northern Pass and its parent company are taking a step in the right direction with this latest proposal. However, we also believe that there are more steps to be taken before this project should be permitted or built.
These public input sessions are designed to allow the public to weigh in on the current proposal and enable the Northern Pass to then improve on that proposal in its formal application to the SEC. We think the proposal as outlined tonight leaves considerable room for improvement. In particular:
First, Northern Pass can use the new cable technology that their latest proposal embraces to bury the line in its entirety rather than limiting burial to one-third of its length. The draft EIS for the project outlines the feasibility of this approach and notes the benefits of doing so.
Extending the run of the HVDC line to Deerfield underground along roadways, and relocating the DC to AC conversion station would take full advantage of the improved long-distance transmission capabilities of a DC line. More importantly, it would also spare 24 communities from the negative impacts of an overhead line, including populous areas like Concord. Southern New Hampshire towns deserve to have their scenery and historic landscapes protected no less than the White Mountain National Forest.
We believe that much of the current proposed route is a relic of the project's prior reliance on old cable technology and an overhead approach that is unnecessary and unsightly. It is not the shortest distance between two points. In particular, the serpentine route through northern Coos County would seem to make little sense other than to benefit Northern Pass itself. We encourage Northern Pass to use more direct routes underneath existing roads in Coos County.
We believe there are compelling arguments for re-routing the proposed line, not the least of which are important property rights issues that are of interest to every New Hampshire landowner. We feel strongly that the proposed route cannot be built without eminent domain, a government power that the applicant has acknowledged it cannot access.
As a landowner and stakeholder, we will be intervening in the SEC process. We look forward to seeing the final proposal as submitted to the SEC in October. Thank you.