NORWICH – The historic sites within a group of power line hot spots on the East Coast – including the communities threatened by New York Regional Interconnect Inc.’s $1.6 billion project – have been listed among the nation’s most endangered.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Washington-based historic preservation society with 270,000 members nationwide, has included all sensitive areas within Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York state, New Jersey and Delaware on its list of the country’s “11 Most Endangered Historic Places.”
Each of the seven states, plus Ohio and Washington, D.C., are slated to become a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor – where electricity transmission projects, despite heavy opposition, could get fast-tracked around state and local authority by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in order to relieve energy congestion in metropolitan areas.
“It’s a highly significant area of historic value and scenic value; all of which is at stake,” said National Trust Program Officer and Regional Attorney Roberta Lane during a phone interview Monday, referring to the 190 miles of upstate New York that could be impacted by NYRI’s 115-foot-tall high voltage transmission line. “The regions this would impact are some of the most important in New York state – with value for the entire nation.”
According to NYRI’s Article VII review application, there are 265 areas of archeological and historical significance along or within one quarter mile of its route from Oneida to Orange County. Sixty-six of those are on or eligible for the National Registry for historic places. Locally, archeological sites near the Chenango and Susquehanna rivers and downtown districts in the Villages of Earlville and Sherburne would be directly affected.
“The Trust is acknowledging that our area is rich in historic material that would be seriously compromised or destroyed by the building of power lines,” said Hubbardsville resident Chris Rossi, who is co-chair of the citizens’ group Stop NYRI. “This is a good reason to challenge or closely scrutinize both the NIETC designations and the NYRI application.”
Both the Trust and Stop NYRI are encouraging – and say they’ll be helping – residents to get their homes, farms and properties listed or considered for eligibility on state and national historic registries in an effort to block NYRI’s power line.
NYRI could not be reached after-hours Monday or before press time Tuesday morning.
Notable sites on the Trust’s list include, Brooklyn’s Industrial Waterfront, structures in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri and the Route 66 motels from Illinois to California.
Guided by the 2005 Federal Energy Policy Act, in April the U.S. Department of Energy’s designated draft NIETCs in the Mid-Atlantic and Southwest – which covers parts of Arizona, California and Nevada. Lane claims the energy policy gives FERC unprecedented power to supplant not only state law, but long-standing federal statutes such as the Environmental Protection and Historic Preservation acts, noting protected areas downstate along the Delaware River and the D&H Canal that would be encroached by NYRI. She specifically called the corridor designations “over-broad, ambiguous and ill-conceived.”
“We do think there are other solutions,” Lane said, siting conservation and production-side management. “We do understand that (electricity) congestion is an issue. But the NIETC designation doesn’t come close to being appropriate.”
Lane said the trust is pushing for revisions to the rules the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy created through each department’s interpretation of what their authority should be based on the 2005 Energy Policy Act.
Federal Energy officials tout the authority as a necessary measure in insuring the nations security.
“The Energy Policy Act, or EPAct, as we refer to it, is an ambitious plan to increase our energy efficiency, upgrade our energy infrastructure, and diversify and expand the amount of energy we produce here at home,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in a statement August 8, 2006, “all of which will enhance our long-term energy security.”
Lane said people should expect more corridors and more power line projects nationwide unless a compromise can be reached.
“The whole country needs to know these corridors are coming to an area near them,” she said. “People need to take action.”
The National Trust was formed under federal law in 1949. According to its mission statement, the Trust seeks to save America’s diverse historic places and revitalize communities. It has six offices nationwide and preserves 28 national historic sites.