Power line sparking ill feelings
Energy: OG&E addressing worries, covering costs
Health, land values being cited by residents.
Power line sparking ill feelings in Kingfisher County
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By Robert Medley
Published: July 21, 2008
KINGFISHER COUNTY — Brent Snider said he is more worried about his children's health than the view from the living room.
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Price of progress
The plan for the OG&E line derailed the possibility of one day building an airport just south of Kingfisher, City Manager Richard Reynolds said.
A Kingfisher airport committee was formed this year to study plans for a paved airport south of the city. That area was tabbed as the best spot for an airport. Not now.
"There will never be an airport south of Kingfisher. We're limited to where we can be already because we can't be less than 25 miles from another airport. It (power line) would absolutely eliminate an airport south of Kingfisher,” Reynolds said.
In Piedmont, the power line route is 300 feet from city council member John Brown's house. The route passes within 100 feet of a lot his father, Jim Brown, wants to build on, too. John Brown, who has seen Piedmont's population nearly triple in a decade, said the power line could stymie growth in the fastest growing part of Piedmont.
"Nobody wants to live next to these lines,” John Brown said.
He said homeowners also are concerned about the height of the poles — which would be the tallest in the OG&E system — and how close they would be to houses.
"These poles could fall on a house,” John Brown said. "I don't think that is right.”
Kingfisher resident Billy Murray has scrapped his plans to build a house on land he owns about 7 miles northwest of Okarche. Murray said he has found several Texas horned lizards along the route, but he does not think concerns for the rare reptile will change the course of the line.
"There is really no fighting them,” he said. "They are cutting my property in half. Who would think in America a company could just cram something down your throat?”
OG&E officials say they know about these concerns.
"We think there is a significant public benefit for Oklahoma and for the state's economic development to tap into wind power,” Alford said.
OG&E spokeman Gil Broyles said officials mailed letters to landowners along the route and advertised four open houses to answer questions about the transmission line in May. Open houses, held at schools and churches, were done in Woodward, Canton, Okarche and Piedmont. Broyles said the company has made efforts to communicate with landowners.
"We have tried to get as much information to people along the route as we can,” Broyles said.
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No one should have to sacrifice so much for such an unreliable, intermittent, and expensive electricity generation source as wind.
There is not reason other than expense that these lines could not be buried 10-15 feet down so the soil could at least buffer the effects of the emissions.