An electrical line, and its need, split southeast cities

Mike Kaszuba / Star Tribune

Three years ago, Xcel Energy began what it described as a routine replacement of an aging transmission line to meet the electrical demands of the Twin Cities' growing southeast suburbs.

The new double-circuit, 115-kilovolt line would be strung along existing right of way from Newport to Bloomington and would have a lower magnetic field, said the utility, then known as Northern States Power. Without the upgrade, officials warned, there could be power failures.

Critics, however, see a different motive, saying that the suburbs through which the line will pass largely do not need the additional power and that one big beneficiary will be the Mall of America, which is preparing to build its second phase.

So far nothing has been simple. Xcel sued one city, Mendota Heights, after its City Council balked at issuing a permit. And it may soon do the same with South St. Paul, whose planning commission denied a permit last month.

The controversy also is forcing the cities to choose between two distinct points of view: That of opponents, who continue to portray the power lines as likely health hazards, and that of people who fear blackouts similar to those Californians have experienced.

"Because of the California situation -- outages -- that's the first thing on everybody's mind," Mendota Heights Mayor Charles Mertensotto said.

But in a sign of how aggressive it has become, the Power Line Task Force, the main opposition group, formally asked the state Public Utilities Commission to force Xcel to "immediately shut down" the existing transmission line because of potential health issues.

That single-circuit line dates to the 1920s, before many of the nearby homes were built.

The commission rejected the request, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed the decision in May.

"We've been badgered by a small group," said Sunfish Lake Mayor Frank Tiffany, whose city lies in the path of the line. The opponents, he said, are forcing communities to make ill-advised decisions that will not stand up in court and will jeopardize their residents' power needs.

The Minnesota Department of Health, joining the fray, has issued two advisories saying there continues to be no conclusive relationship between the lines and any health problems.

But department officials do not completely discount a link. "It's the kind of thing you can't entirely dismiss," said Chuck Stroebel, an environmental research scientist for the department. "But the evidence is extremely weak and inconsistent."

'Pop and crack'

Opponents, like South St. Paul resident Joe Turenne, are unswayed. Turenne and his wife, Ellen, live 25 feet from the line's center, and he is convinced that she has had two miscarriages as a result.

The South St. Paul City Council is scheduled to debate the power-line issue today. "If the City Council is going to buckle under, then we are gone," Turenne said.

Susan Pugh, whose husband is state House Minority Leader Thomas Pugh, previously lived in the home the Turennes now own and said that she, too, had several miscarriages during the decade she lived there. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure something's not right," she said. "I suspected that was a bad thing to live next to. You could near it pop and crack.

"We all had gardens underneath," she added.

Turenne and other critics also argue that Xcel's claim that a double-circuited line would have lower electromagnetic field readings is misleading, because the lower levels would occur only at certain times.

Time running out

Xcel Energy officials, meanwhile, are frustrated. "I didn't think we would be [without local approval] three years later," said Pat Cline, the utility's manager of community and local governmental relations. He said many people overlook the fact that the purpose is to build a redundancy, so that if the single-circuit line fails, the system does not go dark.

Cline said that the utility is anxious to build the 14-mile line -- a task typically performed during winter, when electrical demand is lower -- and that it needs a decision from the affected suburbs by late August. The new line, he said, will feature towers as tall as 110 feet.

"If you look at the total number of customers this line serves ... you have relatively few people that are opposing it," he added.

Xcel officials said similar upgrades have been made in Brooklyn Park, in Bloomington and in the northeastern suburbs, where a 3.6-mile line in Maplewood, White Bear Lake and Mahtomedi was built in 1995. And, in the case of the southeast-metro line, the electromagnetic field 25 feet from the line's center would drop from 65 milligauss to 27 milligauss with the upgrade, they said.

The effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields are not well understood. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, normal background levels for humans range from 0.1 to 4 milligauss. An electric can opener at 6 inches away has an electromagnetic strength of about 600 milligauss, but at 4 feet away it is just 2 milligauss, the department said.

Cline also said that while the Mall of America's second phase probably would benefit from a new transmission line, the mall project's power supply would come from several substations fed by other transmission lines. The new line, he said, also would benefit other areas, including Eagan, Inver Grove Heights and parts of Mendota Heights.

Committee criticized

Xcel officials said they are disappointed with the response to the line because an Xcel-funded steering committee -- consisting of the mayors of Mendota Heights, Sunfish Lake and South St. Paul -- concluded in January not only that the double-circuit line would lower the electromagnetic field but also that the resale values of homes near the line were only marginally lower than those of other homes.

But Roger Conant, president of the Power Line Task Force and a Sunfish Lake resident, said the committee received help from a consultant who had done work for Xcel Energy. And he said Xcel sued Mendota Heights in part because the utility thought the issues raised by critics already had largely been dismissed by the steering committee.

The utility "tried to cook the steering-committee process, and it didn't work," Conant said.

Robert Seaberg, chairman of South St. Paul's planning commission, said he voted against issuing Xcel a permit for another reason: the utility's refusal to bury the new line. "We're not against the power, [but] bury it," he said.

Xcel officials said they would consider burying the line only if the suburbs where the work was done paid the cost. Double-circuiting the line, according to Xcel, will cost $16.1 million; burying it would add $4.6 million in South St. Paul alone.

In South St. Paul, city officials are wary of what will happen next. "Xcel has shown they're not afraid to take this issue to litigation," said William Goff, the city's planner, who unsuccessfully urged the planning commission to issue the permit. "[But] this is mainly an upgrade that's going to benefit ... developing areas" -- not South St. Paul.

-- Mike Kaszuba is at mkaszuba@startribune.com .

© Copyright 2001 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.