Sophie Voigt looks at the power lines that hang between her South St. Paul home of 49 years and her neighbor's bungalow. She shakes her head at the circular concrete footing that will soon support a new 100-foot-tall power pole.

"You get disgusted is what you get," Voigt said. "You get frustrated."

Voigt, 72, is among a small but ardent cadre of southeast suburban residents who have spent four years challenging Xcel Energy's attempt to beef up its transmission line from Newport through South St. Paul, Inver Grove Heights, Sunfish Lake and Mendota Heights.

She can't help but wonder whether a half-century spent living near the line was a factor in several late-term miscarriages and her losing a breast to cancer.

Both in court and along the line, Xcel is moving forward with its plan to upgrade the 115-kilovolt line from a single to a double circuit. But the Power Line Task Force -- which has an unlikely leader, a financial expert named Roger Conant -- continues to challenge the company at every turn.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals last week dismissed the group's latest appeal just as massive 110-foot power towers were getting strung with lines in Inver Grove Heights. The task force's next legal challenge is scheduled for a hearing next month in Hennepin County.

The issue is as technically complex as it is controversial.

While neighbors are worrying about health concerns, Xcel Energy is insisting the upgraded line will reduce exposure to electric magnetic fields (EMFs) while ensuring reliable power service to a growing area.

Xcel officials say the existing line, which dates back to the 1920s, is like a stool that could topple if one leg wobbles under the weight of peak demand and housing growth.

"If one leg in the system fails, the stool won't stand up unless we do this to add enough sufficient backup," spokesman Ed Legge said. "It's really about strengthening the infrastructure to meet the demand and increase reliability to the entire region."

But Conant calls the whole project "unconscionable" in light of a $7 million, nine-year study produced in 2002 by the California Health Department that looked at possible risk factors from EMFs emanating from power lines and other sources of electricity.

That report states that "to one degree or another . . . scientists are inclined to believe that EMFs can cause some degree of increased risk of childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and miscarriage."

Dissenters have questioned the study's methodology. Xcel Energy says it's the latest in more than 20 years of research that has failed to come up with conclusive evidence linking EMFs to negative health effects.

But Conant considers the study the holy grail in his battle with Xcel.

"Four years ago, we were kind of the lone voice in the woods, resisting the new line on the grounds that magnetic fields are unhealthy and cause disease," he said. "But over time, it's become essentially irrefutable that you're more apt to get sick if you get near the lines and have exposure over time."

An unlikely activist

Conant is far from the stereotypical activist fighting a power company. He has no ponytail, bandanna or populist Paul Wellstone-like background.

He'll turn a far-from-retiring 65 on May 1. The New York native has a doctorate in economics from Columbia University. For years, he handled the investment portfolio for the St. Paul Companies insurance firm, St. Paul's largest private employer. As a financial consultant, he now advises overseas companies on marketing strategies in the United States.

"I am something of a conservative, but I don't see this as a conservative vs. liberal issue," Conant said. "It's a human issue."

He and his wife, Ingrid, moved into a home along Sunfish Lake in 1989 after the power company assured them the line that hangs over their property was not a health concern. But when his neighbor died of Lou Gehrig's disease and he began researching the issue, his concern grew into an obsession. He now updates his Web site, http://www.powerlinefacts.com constantly.

"In economics, we're trained above all else to think clearly and dispassionately about the issues," he said. "When you look at the data here, there's no question these power lines are just plain dangerous. No investment person would invest in a facility that had macros [an outlook] as bad as this."

Several residents of the roughly 45 households near the line, from the wealthy folks on Sunfish Lake to working-class residents of Mendota Heights and South St. Paul, commend his tireless efforts.

"I call him our bulldog," said Molly Park, recently elected mayor of Sunfish Lake largely because she lives near the line and her predecessor supported giving Xcel Energy a permit.

Tamara Will, whose Mendota Heights home has the power line running over her lilac bush and her kids' swing set, calls Conant "the most tenacious individual I've ever met.

"I've never gotten the sense that this was all about him and his family," Will said. "Roger seems genuinely concerned about the bigger picture, and this is not one of those 'not in my back yard' issues. That might be how we got involved, but we don't wish this on any family."

Corbin Lacina, a 10-year NFL veteran who played guard for the Vikings the last four seasons, lives in Sunfish Lake, and his wife is expecting their fourth child. The power line isn't too close to his home, but he owns an adjacent lot under the line that he says is "totally unusable" because of health concerns.

Lacina lauds Conant's efforts and discounts the notion that this issue boils down to a battle of the rich vs. the rich, with wealthy Sunfish Lake property owners taking on the huge energy company.

"Roger is relentless and very well-organized, and he's doing a tremendous job," Lacina said. "He's raised awareness, and I look at the people of Sunfish Lake as having the resources and the power to continue this fight. It affects working-class people, too, but we're still alive because people here have the resources to fight a big company."

Not everyone in the area sings Conant's praises. Mendota Heights City Council Member Jack Vitelli, a retired Honeywell vice president, has clashed with Conant at several forums.

"I have to admire his tenacity and his intelligence, but I think he uses that to arouse citizens and cause an undue level of concern," Vitelli said. "He uses facts that are pulled out of context from various reports."

Vitelli said he studied the issue for 200 hours before supporting a permit in Mendota Heights. He called the California study Conant cites "extremely weak," arguing that if it had found a direct link between power lines and cancer, they wouldn't have danced around the issue. "They wouldn't use words such as 'to one degree or another they are inclined to find some degree of increased risk.' "

Vitelli also said Conant's arguments about decreased property values don't stand up because all the homeowners bought their properties knowing the power lines were there.

Conant and his supporters have called upon Xcel to reduce their exposure to EMFs by burying the line. But Xcel Energy says doing so would be prohibitively expensive, more than quadrupling the cost. Citizens have pushed for running the line along Hwy. 110 or Interstate Hwy. 494, but Xcel says using the existing corridors would lessen the impact on residents and the environment.

Conant said Xcel Energy's size gives it "a bottomless pit" of legal resources. So far, the power company has prevailed in nearly all the court challenges. Xcel Energy will try to have the latest suit moved from Hennepin to Dakota County, arguing that's where the line runs. That's also where Dakota County District Judge Rex Stacey has dismissed much of the task force's arguments.

Last week's defeat at the appellate level said the task force's appeal was moot because Sunfish Lake and Xcel Energy had already struck an agreement that superseded the group's right to appeal.

"To tell you the truth, it's shaken my faith a little in democratic institutions," Conant said. "Xcel has manipulated the system so you can't appeal something that is fundamentally wrong."

Curt Brown is at curt.brown@startribune.com.

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