With Dominion Clearing Proposal Looming, Supporters Celebrate W&OD Trail's Birthday

Supporters of the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park Trail gathered in Paeonian Springs in Loudon County, Va. last Saturday to celebrate the trail’s 30th birthday. But for one portion of the trail, this birthday could be its last.

In plans announced earlier this year, the Dominion Virginia Power Company, who has stewardship of the 45-mile long trail, intends to extend power lines from Leesburg to Purcellville in western Loudon County. The first and cheapest proposal thus far requires the clear-cutting of an 11-mile portion of the trail, nearly one quarter of its length.

The proposal stems from a finding by Dominion Virginia Power that should the current rate of population growth continue in Loudon County into 2007, a failure along any of the four high-voltage lines currently supplying power to western Loudon County, might overload the remaining three lines, resulting in a prolonged outage that could last weeks.

Currently the Dominion Virginia Power Company is testing the public opinion for the plan that would clear out the existing flora along the W&OD and replace it with 110-foot tall transmission towers. Other options for extending the wires to Purcellville have not yet been ruled out and a study group comprised of members from those areas that would be affected by the project including Purcellville, Loudon, Hamilton, Paeonian Springs, Leesburg and Round Hill to investigate alternative plans.

One such plan would utilize a corridor along Route 7, sparing the W&OD. While a price estimate was not available for that option at press time, Dominion spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson stated that the Route 7 proposal would certainly be more expensive than that of the W&OD trail, since Dominion has an easement along an 11-mile stretch of the trail. Anderson said Dominion hoped to have an estimate for the Route 7 option by the Aug. 3 study group meeting.

Legally, Dominion has the right to clear the trail, but from the start they have attempted to be sensitive to public concerns for the W&OD, issuing a statement to the public concerning their plans early in the process and forming the study group in April to gather the public’s input.

The monthly work group will continue meeting until Dominion submits an official proposal to the State Corporation Commission in Richmond for approval. Anderson said that Dominion has targeted mid- to late-Fall for delivering a final proposal. Dominion cannot move forward with any plans until gaining the approval of the State Corporation Commission.

While some local political figures and conservationists have called on Dominion to bury the lines, that reality seems an unlikely avenue for Dominion to take. According to Anderson, burying the lines would be eight to 10 times more expensive than overhead lines, and are much harder to maintain and repair.

“An outage that may take a day or two to repair with overhead lines may take as long as a week,” Anderson said.

Thus far, the trail has received plenty of support from local governments interested in its preservation. The Loudon County Board of Supervisors voted to oppose the plan to replace the trees along the W&OD with power lines during the first week of July. Locally in Falls Church, the City Council recently passed a resolution opposing the denuding of the trail.

For his part, Glen Gillis, a Sierra Club outing guide and a bike tour guide with the Potomac Peddlers, lauded the stewardship of the trail by Virginia Dominion Power, stating that in the past they would only trim back trees when they absolutely had to. But recently he has seen a chance in the mindset, citing clear cutting that has already taken place along the trail between Arlington and Reston and hopes to protect the 11-mile stretch in danger, which he dubs “the most scenic part of the trail.”

“This trail is a critical part of the natural beauty in Northern Virginia and we’ve lost a lot of it already,” Gillis said.

Gillis and others supporting the trail’s preservation hope that Saturday’s celebration will demonstrate the local interest in leaving the trail untouched.

“We understand that power lines need to be built somewhere,” W&OD Park Manager Paul McCray said. “But we feel that there are alternatives that would be far better than felling 26,000 trees and closing the trail to the public for a year.” While the trail closure for any length of time is not a certainty, McCray said: “I don’t see how we could keep [the trail] open with the large scale clearing being proposed.”

McCray estimates that the Save the Trail petition garnered over 400 of signatures during the course of the celebration, with some coming from residents as far away as Arlington and Alexandria.

The celebration took place near the 39.5-mile marker of the trail near Paeonian Springs with many hikers and bikers trekking various lengths of the trail, frequently passing taped-up signs urging support for the trail, en route to the festivities.