'Friends' Hail W&OD Victory

Friends of the W&OD Trail at their monthly meeting at the Falls Church Community Center Tuesday were elated to learn some good news. Virginia Dominion Power announced earlier in the day it no longer intends to use a nine-mile portion of the trail originally targeted for clearing to facilitate construction of a needed transmission line to western Loudoun County.

According to Dominion, the decision stems from extensive support for the trail and feedback from a community working group that concluded the power company should seek alternative avenues to extend a 230-kilovolt line to serve the rapidly growing area.

The need for a new transmission line remains after a study concluded that by 2007 an overload on one of the existing lines serving Loudoun County could result in a lengthy blackout for Dominion customers. The power company has hired consulting firm Burns and McDonnell to help develop alternatives to using the trail, including overhead routes along the north and south sides of the Route 7 corridor and in the area south of Leesburg. The trail is not entirely safe yet, however. The original proposal called for use of 11-miles of the trail stretching from Leesburg to Purcellville, and while Dominion Senior Vice President Eva Hardy stated in a letter to State Senators William Mims and H. Russell Potts Jr., and Delegate Joe May that the Dominion will not touch nine of the 11 proposed miles, it may choose to utilize its easement along a two-mile stretch between Cochran Mill Road and the Route 7 Bypass. Should Dominion use that portion of the trail, Hardy states in her letter that the company will “make every effort to use the northern portion of the easement.” That portion is adjacent to industrial/commercial-zoned woodlands and would likely have minimal impact on the trail and the home-owners on the south side of the easement according to both Dominion spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson and W&OD Manager Paul McCray.

“They [the home-owners] might see the tops of the towers poking up through the trees, but it’s much better than seeing them in their back yards,” McCray said. “We at the Park Authority will keep on working to find a way so that Dominion doesn’t have to use that last two miles. I think we’ll find a way to make it work.”

McCray feels positively that Dominion will leave that two-mile stretch unscathed based on his recent meetings with various Dominion personnel as well as Senator Mims.

“I feel they want to stop the negative press, not from us, but from the citizens writing in to magazines and newspapers,” McCray said. “I think they’re going to do their darndest to avoid the rest.”

“I think they really came to understand all of the concerns people had, especially with the houses out there,” he added. In some instances homes come within 15 feet of the trail, meaning the original proposal would have placed electrical towers almost literally in their back yards.

Beginning in October, Dominion will hold public workshops to discuss the findings of the consultant.

“We believe that it is better to [get public feedback] up front,” Anderson said. The public workshops will provide information both on the consultant’s findings as well answer standard questions related to the lines, such as those related to health issues.

Anderson said that Dominion hopes to file with the Virginia State Corporation Commission no later than the first quarter of 2005 and will push for construction to be completed by the summer of 2007.

Despite Tuesday's good news, also discussed at Tuesday's meeting here was the danger of a funding shortfall for the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, given its legal costs to protect the W&OD trail and other properties in the recent period.