Young Harris, Ga. – The Tennessee Valley Authority heard comments and answered questions from landowners and residents in the area on the proposed transmission routes which will tie into a new Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corp. substation on Burnt Schoolhouse Road in Shooting Creek.
A media advisory was sent in November from the TVA asking for input on proposed transmission system improvements to serve the growing electrical load and increase power reliability in Clay and surrounding counties.
At the six-hour open house on Dec. 4 at the Towns County Recreation Center, 241 guests registered their names and contact information. Some individuals declined to sign in, making attendance more than 300 people.
TVA siting engineers, engineers in related fields and John West, TVA’s contact for the project, as well as Blue Ridge Mountain EMC engineer Daniel Frizzell were available to everyone with a question or a comment on a one-to-one basis.
Questions about the project ranged from why additional power capacity is needed, what alternatives are available to supply an increase of power, questions on demographics and questions on 161 kilovolts, the standard voltage that TVA uses. Questions were asked about land easements.
Attendees at the open house were furnished four pages of information on the project which included a map, but more information was being exchanged on the floor between those in attendance and the TVA staff that had come to gather public input.
Taylor Warden, TVA transmission siting engineer, answered questions during the open house.
Question: What would be the proposed length of the preferred transmission line route and has it been selected?
Taylor: “That would be 7-9 miles. It has not been selected, that’s why we’re here today. We’re presenting multiple alternatives across the area to gain feedback from potentially impacted landowners because these potentially impacted landowners play key decision making in our process. We evaluate new transmission lines into three categories – engineering, environmental and social.
“Social is the big reason why we’re here today. Landowners have different avenues to submit comments. Those comments are documented. A 30-day public comment period began today and that period will end Monday, Jan. 5. The comments go directly into TVA’s decision making, into the analysis that TVA performs when selecting a new transmission route.”
Question: What type of review will the Shooting Creek project have to go through?
Taylor: “Right now, the review would be doing our studies on the transmission siting, and the team that we are here with today would be performing. After a decision has been made for a preferred route, then the appropriate environmental review process would start, the National Environmental Policy Act. Every new project has to go through an environmental review, depending on the size of the project, it warrants what type of review it would go through.”
Question: Who generates proposed growth numbers?
Taylor: “We have a joint ownership program, so we have the obligation to serve BRMEMC’s needs. The purpose behind this proposed project, BRMEMC is seeing some capacity issues on their existing system in the generalized area.
“They saw the need to build a new substation and for us to provide that needed capacity for the future, which would allow for more capacity and operational flexibility. We have to build this new transmission line to interconnect into our grid for them, so they can have that added capacity and flexibility in the future.”
Blue Ridge Mountain EMC engineer Daniel Frizzell was also available to answer questions.
Question: How large is the area serviced by your company?
Frizzell: “We serve all of Clay County, all of Towns County, all of Union County, and the eastern and southern part of Fannin County. In Cherokee County, we serve the far north, up around Hanging Dog and that area, and N.C. 294 out to just past Hiwassee Dam School and that area along U.S. 64 to the Tennessee line.”
Question: For customers within Shooting Creek, was any notification sent from Blue Ridge MountainEMC about the project?
Frizzell: “Our footprint in the project is pretty small compared to the transmission line in this particular project.”
Comments will be accepted through Jan. 5. Any comments received, including names and addresses will become part of the administrative record. For details or to submit comments, contact: John West, siting engineering, Tennessee Valley Authority, 1101 Market Street (MR 4G), Chattanooga, TN 37402-2801.