Capon Valley Coalition

Dear friends and the iPetitions Campaign Team,

I am the vice-abbot of the Bhavana Society Buddhist Monastery and Meditation Center located on Back Creek Road. I wholly support the great efforts you and your group are doing to get the message out about this ‘land grab’ by the Power company and to fight against it.

It seems the route of the new TrAIL Co. power line is being moved east of the existing power line, the Capon Woods Resort houses and the La Follette junkyard.

I quote a section of the letter in the LRE p. 71:

“The routing team determined that the new route should continue to the east for an additional 500 feet and then turn more gradually to the southeast. This allows the route to diverge away from the existing line in this area and pass to the east of the auto junkyard on Back Creek Road and the numerous residences on Capon Resort Road.”

By looking at that route map, this proposed change would go over the eastern part of our monastery property which is adjacent to the junkyard. This change in the route will seriously impact at least five cottages used by our residents and guests. Apart from healths risks due to the close proximity to electromagnetic radiation,
this will seriously infringe on the sanctity and space of our religious/contemplative order.

It will also adversely affect our livelihood and way of living. Hundreds of people come here every year from all parts of the country as well as from abroad to spend time in prayer and meditation in the peaceful setting of the forest, on organized retreats as well as individual self-retreats. Local people in the area may not know about this.

I know that probably nobody wants to be closely affected by this additional mega power line. I guess ultimately it may have to go somewhere. But we are curious and would like to know why the power line cannot go through the middle of the junkyard. Is a junkyard more valuable than a place of spiritual worship and refuge?

I don’t know if local people know that a place of spiritual worship may be sacrificed over a junkyard. People may be interested to know this.

You may know more about this particular aspect of this controversial issue than I do. Any insights and thoughts about this particular issue would be greatly appreciated. And if you deem it worthy of notice, to bring this issue regarding the serious compromise of our monastery to your website readers. It may also help galvanize additional support for the total stopping of the use of ‘eminent domain’ and the additional power line altogether, which some people deem redundant and which is primarily helping corporate interests.

I am also going to write a ‘letter of protest’ to the Governor and other State Officials. After consideration, we may perhaps put this issue up on our Bhavana Society website to inform Buddhists worldwide of this serious encroachment of a place of worship over a junkyard. So any additional clear facts related to this issue are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Bhante Yogavacara Rahula
Vice-abbot
Bhavana Forest Monastery
Rt.1, Box 218-3, Back Creek Road
Hampshire County, WV.

WV customers help to pay for power line

Emily Corio reported yesterday on West Virginia Public Broadcasting:

Allegheny Power has updated its application to build a high voltage power line through North-Central West Virginia. For one, the price tag has increased, and now West Virginia customers will have to pick up some of the cost. Emily Corio reports.

Emily Corio (EC): Initially, Allegheny Power didn’t think the project would increase electric bills for its West Virginia customers. But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled that all customers in the region would have to share some of the cost. Alan Staggers is Allegheny Energy’s spokesman.

Alan Staggers (AS): “The FERC decision changed that cost allocation, and although that really won’t be finalized until sometime probably in 2008, our best estimate right now is that it would cost an average of about 90 cents a month.”

EC: The entire cost for the project has also increased from 820 million to almost 880 million. That’s because a section of line in Virginia has gotten longer. Staggers says Dominion Virginia Power decided to change the course of its proposed power line, adding 40 miles.

AS: “They elected to parallel an existing 500 K-V line that runs through a portion of their service territory, and so the extra length of the line added costs to the original estimate.”

EC: Meanwhile, the Consumer Advocate Division of West Virginia’s Public Service Commission, wants Allegheny Power to look changing a section of its line in West Virginia so that it would parallel an existing power line. Alan Staggers says the company looked into this a couple of weeks ago, flying over portions of Monongalia County.

AS: “It looks like if we would try to adopt that route as proposed it would require the removal of 15 residences and 12 other structures. Right now the route that we have proposed does not require the removal of any residences, and across the 114 miles of the line in West Virginia, only 12 residences will be within 250 feet of the line.”

EC: Consumer Advocate Division Director, Billy Jack Gregg, says the power line could generally follow an existing right-of-way.

Billy Jack Gregg (BJG): “And in fact, in the section of the line that they are proposing to parallel from Mount Storm to Meadow Brook, they make numerous deviations to avoid houses and other structures that have been constructed next to the existing 500 K-V line. Any rational approach for paralleling in the section south of Morgantown would do the same thing.”

EC: Gregg says the current power line debate in north central West Virginia is similar to the one that took place in the southern part of the state. Appalachian Power first proposed building a transmission line through several southern counties in 1990. The line was completed last year.

Gregg says the company submitted three different proposals, and the commission finally approved a route that the Consumer Advocate Division had suggested.

BJG: “This is not something that anybody really wants to happen, but if it is going to happen we should do it in a way that is as acceptable as possible to the population.”

EC: For West Virginia Public Broadcasting, I’m Emily Corio in Morgantown.