American Transmission Company (ATC), Arrowhead-Weston Line

STATUS: Completed. Became operational January 2008.

OPPOSITION: landowners, local communities, government officials (names/groups not specified in source material)

PROSPECTS: Completed after delays

BACKGROUND: The Arrowheald-Weston line is a 220-mile 345-kilovolt transmission line that links Duluth, Minnesota to Wausau, Wisconsin. After 10 years in the making, the Arrowhead-Weston line became operational in January 2008. Originally proposed by Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Minnesota Power in 1998, American Transmission Company (ATC) took over the project in 2002. But before ATC could begin construction on the line, the utility had to address major opposition from the local communities, landowners and government officials. Also, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the National Park Service (NPS) came out against the project and voiced environmental concerns. The DNR said constructing any power line of that size would have significant adverse impacts on the environment and said the project should be rejected as proposed. The DNR concerns included impacts of forest fragmentation, impacts to wetlands, impacts to endangered and threatened species and habitats, impacts to streams and stream corridors and impacts to recreation on state, county, federal and private lands. The National Park Service echoed many of the same environmental concerns put forth by the DNR and questioned the overall need for the power line. Before an application for the construction of the power line was even submitted, it is reported that Wisconsin regulators received more than 10,000 letters on the topic. Eight county boards and more than 20 town and village boards also passed resolutions against construction of the line. At the same time, another major issue was developing. Upon adopting the project, ATC conducted a thorough review and determined the cost to build the line had increased from the original estimate of $165 million to $425 million, due to environmental impact mitigation, environmental inspection, farm disease mitigation, increased real estate ROW costs, increased public outreach efforts, and increased labor and benefits. ATC had to resubmit an application to the state regulatory agencies for approval at the higher cost. To address the opposition and cost increases with other groups, the utility launched a grassroots public outreach campaign to raise awareness of the need and local benefits for the new line, and to encourage public officials and business leaders to approve and support moving forward with the project. Two years later, in February 2004, construction began in Minnesota, and by August 2005, the utility secured the necessary permits and began construction on the line in Wisconsin. Due to permit delays, ATC started the project eight months late, but managed to finish the construction seven months early in November 2007 and energize the line four months ahead of schedule in January 2008. The total project cost came in at $435 million. SOURCES: Arrowhead-Weston Transmission Project (www.arrowhead-weston.com); Transmission & Distribution World (http: //tdworld.com/overhead_transmission/atc_energizes_mile_transmission); Reuters (http: //www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS205424+05-Feb-2008+BW20080205); Wisconsin State Journal (http: //www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/madison.com/html/archive_files/wsj/2000/11/28/0011280074.php)

Comments

[Carol A Overland]

Most of your "Background" is about the Wisconsin part of the process, not Minnesota, and you don't even mention A-W in Wisconsin. ????

[Carol A Overland]

Aaaah, yes, another of my projects here, for intervenor World Organization for Landowner Fredom. There's a lot of info out there, I don't understand why you don't list the 37 intervenors -- is it because that shows the multitude of problems with this line? It was chosen as the one line to be the be-all and end-all of xmsn, and instead, it's just the first of all those lines in the WRAO Report. You're missing the Chisago Project (1996-2008) and SE Metro, and the SW MN 345kV "It's for wind" NOT line.