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Group protests Allegheny Energy TrAIL plan
The weather cooperated Saturday so that about 150 people, young and old alike, gathered on a hillside in Scenery Hill to protest Allegheny Energy's proposed high-voltage transmission line.
Participants, most wearing a yellow shirt or jacket, were placed on a hillside on Susan Blank's farm on Daniels Run Road in a manner that spelled out "Stop The Towers" when viewed from the sky about 5:30 p.m.
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"I'm excited to see so many people," said Laurie Nicholl, a resident of Eighty Four and president of the Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania.
Nicholl is one of several adults who helped stage Saturday's event. But most of the credit was given to 16-year-old Jessie Robker, a sophomore at Bentworth High School who started the teen petition drive in opposition to Allegheny Power's Trans Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL).
The TrAIL proposal calls for the construction of one 500-kilovolt and three 138-kilovolt transmission lines through Washington and Greene counties. The entire line, however, will begin in Southwestern Pennsylvania and end in Virginia.
According to the proposal, the line would run directly along Daniel's Run Road, on which Robker's family lives.
"When I have kids, I want to come back here to show them" my home and not the power lines, said Robker, who says he is very passionate about the issue.
The line will pass across thousands of acres of property, and opponents contend it will pose health risks through electromagnetic fields that have been linked to increased risks of childhood leukemia and numerous other health dangers. Other concerns include contaminated drinking water from herbicides used to control vegetation around the lines, increased air pollution and greenhouse gases, destroyed farmlands and plummeting property values.
Rebecca Foley, who owns a 132-acre farm in Jefferson Township, Greene County, was on hand for the event. She said her property lies directly on the proposed line path, and she plans to fight it every step of the way.
"They want to make Pennsylvania a giant electrical box and dumping ground," she said.
