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Power line need overstated

A strip through the Brooker Creek Preserve could be 125 feet wide, not half a mile wide.

By Theresa Blackwell, Times Staff Writer
Published February 23, 2008

EAST LAKE - A strip of land through the Brooker Creek Preserve half a mile wide?

Sorry, make that 125 feet wide.

That's the message Progress Energy Florida executives delivered Friday, acknowledging that a utility consultant recently chose some words poorly and left Pinellas County officials misunderstanding the utility's plans.

Progress Energy representatives now say that if they decide to build a nuclear power plant in Levy County, the maximum additional right of way they would need in the preserve for new high-voltage transmission lines is 125 feet.

That would be added to a 500-foot-wide Progress Energy strip where existing transmission lines already run along the eastern side of the preserve.

Or the new transmission lines could follow an existing route that cuts across the preserve diagonally and then heads north along East Lake Road.

Or, the utility says, perhaps no new lines would be needed in the preserve at all.

But anything requiring a half-mile of space?

No.

"We would never clear-cut a half-mile corridor," Buddy Eller, Progress Energy's director of Florida communications, said Friday.

That, however, is not the impression left with county officials this month by a water resource analyst/ecologist with Biological Research Associates of Riverview, a consulting company working for Progress Energy.

A half-mile corridor "has been part of the discussion with us since the consultant visited on Feb. 7," county Environmental Lands Director Bruce Rinker said Friday.

On Friday, Progress Energy executives said preserve officials may have misunderstood some of the utility's terminology. They said the final right of way routes that Progress Energy will choose will be much narrower than the wide corridors on the maps they've made public so far.

But preserve land manager Lisa Baltus said Friday that she was not confused. Baltus said she looked at the corridor on the Progress Energy map and asked the consultant, "How much of that do you need?"

"She said a half a mile, that whole thing," Baltus said.

Incredulous, Baltus said she asked the consultant where other power lines half a mile wide exist in Florida. She wanted to see what a power line that wide looks like. The consultant didn't know.

Last week, when the Times contacted Progress Energy about the consultant's discussions with Pinellas officials, a utility spokeswoman did not challenge the possibility that the utility might need a piece of the preserve half a mile wide. A corridor that large would consume 1,549 of the 8,300 acres in the preserve.

Rinker spoke with Progress Energy about the half-mile wide corridor flap Thursday, but said Friday he still didn't understand just how much the utility would need. When he heard Progress Energy is now saying no more than 125 feet, he was hardly elated.

"I'm still perplexed as to why they would look at conservation areas at all," Rinker said. "And I would anticipate that neighborhood associations would also be concerned."

* * *

On Friday, Progress Energy officials also addressed some of the fallout from one of the questions their consultant posed to Pinellas officials.

On Feb. 7, consultant Christy Stephenson asked Baltus to identify any "wish list concepts" she had "for 'win-win' scenarios." As Baltus recalls, the consultant said, "Pretend you are sitting on Santa's lap and can ask for anything."

"The language that was used was unfortunate," Eller said Friday. He also said, "we've addressed that with the consultant."

The company has tried to be proactive in reaching out to community leaders about its plans and enlisting their thoughts, utility officials said.

And why is a utility consultant gathering "wish lists" from preserve officials in the first place?

"As part of the outreach, we're trying to understand what's important to the communities and what's important to the land managers," said Gail Simpson, Progress Energy manager for public policy and constituency relations.

* * *

The decision whether to build the plant has yet to be made, Progress Energy officials said Friday. And the process of selecting transmission line routes is in the very early stages, they emphasized, early enough that comment from the public can still have some effect.

So they say they are eager to hear from the public at open houses scheduled in the 10 counties that could possibly be affected.

In Pinellas, an open house will be held in East Lake from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Crescent Oaks Country Club, 3300 Crescent Oaks Blvd.

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or 727 445-4170.

To learn more

Public meetings on possible nuclear plant

Progress Energy Florida officials will hold public information open houses in counties that could be affected if a nuclear power plant is built in Levy County:

Pinellas

- Crescent Oaks Country Club, 3300 Crescent Oaks Blvd., from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday.

Hillsborough

- Alfano Conference & Banquet Center, 11606 N McKinley Drive, Tampa, from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

- Tampa Marriott Westshore, 1001 N. West Shore Blvd., from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Hernando

- Silverthorn Country Club, 4550 Golf Club Lane, Spring Hill, from 3 to 7 p.m. March 3.

- Silverthorn Country Club, 4550 Golf Club Lane, Spring Hill, from 3 to 7 p.m. March 4.

Polk

- The Lakeland Center, Lake Hollingsworth Meeting Room, 701 W Lime St., Lakeland, from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

For information, e-mail energyplanning@pgnmail.com or leave a message toll-free at 1-888-238-0373. In coming weeks, the Web site progress-energy.com/energyplanning will have updated project and meeting information.

[Last modified February 22, 2008, 22:17:43]