FAIRFIELD – Shiloh Baptist Church, Barnum Museum and Freeman Houses in Bridgeport. The Wakeman Boys and Girls Club and Pequot Library in Southport. These are some of the historic and community buildings that will be greatly affected by the United Illuminating monopole project proposed on the north side of Metro-North train tracks.
A video of these properties and many more were beamed onto three large screens at FTC in Fairfield Tuesday night as part of the “U&I vs. UI: Bury the Power Lines” rally that was complete with music from the local band “Out on Bail.”
Residents, business owners, elected officials, and church pastors are telling a Superior Court judge and the Connecticut Siting Council, the agency that approved the 7.3-mile swath of new 95-foot-to-195-foot transmission line monopoles for Fairfield and Bridgeport, about the project’s negative impact.
“It wouldn’t just have a massive impact,” said Rev. Carl McCluster, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church at the rally. “It would destroy our church because based on the easement, our parking lot, our offices would all be taken away. We would be reduced to singular entrances to the property.
“This project chokes the ability to build upon about what has been developed in the South End. Who loses in this? It’s the people here. What about the people who bought the affordable homes down there and have maintained them, the cottages down in the South End. If their homes are impacted, where are they going to go.”
Ever since the Siting Council approved UI’s $255 million plan in a draft decision in January to build 100 monopoles from Fairfield (including Southport) and Bridgeport by taking about 22 acres of property through easements to build its new transmission lines, a grassroots movement has begun. Led by residents Andrea and Steve Ozyck, Sasco Creek Neighbors Environmental Trust Inc. (SCNETI) was formed about a year ago. Its simple mission is to “bury the lines” – as in the UI transmission lines – instead of erecting monopoles.
Their movement has helped steer the Town of Fairfield to appeal the Siting Council decision. It also led to local state legislative delegation to help pass a law that pertains to the rights of “parties and intervenors” in Siting Council proceedings involving electric transmission lines as well as the council’s membership and processes.
“The oral arguments for the Town of Fairfield appeal of the Siting Council decision are scheduled for January,” First Selectman Bill Gerber said at the rally. “Our appeal asks the court to vacate the Siting Council’s decision to approve UI’s plan that isn’t a plan, without a notification for a plan and without due process for a plan that wasn’t a plan to erect massive monopoles throughout Fairfield and Bridgeport.”
He told the crowd of more than 100 that he thinks the town has a good case.
“If we win, we believe UI will have to resubmit its application to the siting council, but under the new rules our state delegation has helped write and pass. That’s PA(public act)-24-144. It requires the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to hold a public meeting to receive comments on a draft act of the Connecticut Siting Council before the end of November.”
UI’s take
UI has said all along the purpose of the project is improve the reliability and resiliency of the transmission system, ensuring that the safe and reliable transmission of power is maintained throughout Fairfield and New Haven County in accordance with Federal reliability standards.
A UI analysis determined that the existing structural support system for the transmission lines exhibits age-related physical limitations that jeopardize the long-term integrity of the transmission system.
Soon after the Siting Council’s approval of the draft decision UI sent a letter on Feb. 16 to the Town of Fairfield with the following message:
“Now that the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) has issued their draft decision and order, starting Monday, 2/19/24, UI staff will proactively go door-to-door distributing Fairfield to Congress Project information updates to residents and businesses abutting the north side of CTDOT tracks.
“UI will be spending the next several months redesigning and engineering the new approved route. Therefore, UI will not have any specific project information about pole locations, heights, or easements at this time.”
Siting Council legislative hearing
DEEP will issue a report on Nov. 14, according to Gerber. On Nov. 21, there will be a hearing on the Siting Council. The scope of this review is on the functions of the Siting Council, its duties and its members, Gerber said. And what changes may be needed for the Siting Council. The kind of criteria it uses to evaluate applications, how the council evaluates environmental and economic impacts of its decisions.
The first selectman is due to testify at the hearing. On Thursday, Dec. 5, written comment will be accepted by email. And by Dec. 31, a final report is due to the General Assembly.
“I think that we are looking at a system that was built and was allowed to grow and doesn’t really consider residents and is only done to guarantee returns of utility companies,” he said. “I think this group and the 501-c 3s are fighting this for the long haul. If we lose this, we are going to the Supreme Court. This probably won’t be resolved in the near future.”
The mission for the Ozycks and SCNETI, which has filed its own appeal of the Siting Council decision, is to stop the monopoles from being built and instead bury the transmission lines.
“That means that UI would seize the property from your neighbors, your friends, your churches, your libraries, your parks and businesses,” Andrea Ozyck said about building the towers. “We found this deeply troubling and deeply unacceptable.
“After discussing our concerns with our representative Jennifer Leeper, she helped us mobilize very quickly. We had three days to file paperwork to officially oppose the project. We knew we needed an organization to help us.”
They then formed SCNETI as a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit to focus their efforts on fighting the transmission line monopoles.
Her husband, Steve, pointed out there is a precedent for an electric utility burying transmission lines instead of erecting new monopoles.
“There was an almost identical project done in Greenwich,” he said. “It’s 2.3 miles long. They buried the lines specifically because of the impact on the environment. It was the first option for Eversource. They said it was a new transmission line and we suggest you bury the line. The cost of burying it was $22 million a mile and was completed in 2020.”
Pastor McCluster’s words put into perspective what rally-goers were thinking as far as what many were thinking. It’s not about the height and aesthetics of the huge monopoles. It’s about something more deep.
“Since I’m a preacher, I speak in scripture,” the pastor said. “I think of ‘who builds the tower without counting the cost.’ Isn’t that interesting? The cost is not in the dollars that are spent; it’s in the life of the community itself.”
