The need for the electricity has been determined, the question during Monday’s CapX2020 public meeting concerned which route the high-voltage transmission lines will take to get it there.

A dozen or so local landowners who live along a small portion of proposed primary and alternate routes that extend from Marshall to Granite Falls attended Monday’s meeting at Prairie’s Edge Casino.

According to CapX planning studies, the state of Minnesota and surrounding regions will require 4,000 - 6,000 megawatts of additional electricity by 2020. If the region is to meet this demand, as well as tap into wind energy opportunities in the southwestern portion of the state, it will require the largest upgrade to the state’s transmission capacity in more than 25 years. Enter CapX2020.

Four sections of over 700 miles and $1.7 billion of transmission line additions and upgrades constitute the first phase of the CapX project. Currently, a 115 kV line runs from Marshall to the Minnesota Valley substation in Granite Falls. The upgrades would increase transmission capacity to 345 kV, and require replacement poles – made of steel and nearly double the size of existing poles – at a height of 130 to 175 feet.

The meeting provided individuals with the opportunity to ask questions or state concerns regarding the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which was released in October and encompasses the overall 235-mile, 345 kV section of the project that runs from Brookings, SouthDakota to Hampton in the southeast corner of the Twin Cities.

Good weather and a good crop were believed to have kept the majority of those whom wished to sound off on the EIS working in the fields. CapX representatives said that the turnout was perhaps the most sparsely attended event that they held.

The EIS covers a wide-range of questions concerning the potential effects of the transmission lines, involving everything from noise and aesthetics to property values and natural resources.
Gary and Jean Anderson shared their concerns following the event. The two farm and run a cattle operation east of Hanley Falls near an existing lower-voltage line, but said that they are weary of what it will mean if the voltage is tripled.

The two cited worries that increased power would create additional stray voltage that could affect their cows, inhibit cell phone service, negatively affect health and possibly lower their property value.

“No matter which way you look at it, it’s going to affect people,” said Gary Anderson. "I was born and raised on the farm and I don’t like to see all these changes happen ... I just wish we had a little more control, but that’s just the way society is nowadays,” he said.

Another individual living south of Hanley Falls who wished to remain nameless, said that she also had concerns about the voltage increase, The woman stated that she was skeptical of the effects that Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) would have on health, noting that thousands of links pop up if you Google: EMF radiation.

CapX Project Communications Specialist Randy Fordice, said that recent studies have never correlated power lines with health issues.

The EPA says, “Despite more than two decades of research to determine whether elevated EMF exposure, principally to magnetic fields, is related to an increased risk of childhood leukemia, there is still no definitive answer.”

Individuals will have an opportunity to submit their concerns through vocal or written testimony concerns to an Administrative Law Judge during a public hearing set for November 30 at the Prairie’s Edge Casino. The judge will use the information when making a final decision on a Route Permit expected to be issued during the spring of 2010.