The Tennessean
Rutherford, Williamson residents fight TVA substation plan
By CLAY CAREY
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, 05/11/06

About 30 rural Rutherford and Williamson County residents presented a petition to the Tennessee Valley Authority today challenging its efforts to build a major power substation in their communities.

“This isn’t just a bunch of people saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to look at this,’” said College Grove resident Richard Davis, who helped organize the signature drive. “These people are saying this will destroy their lifestyle.”

TVA is considering four sites in southwest Rutherford County near the Williamson County line for a 500-kilovolt substation, which would encompass about 60 acres, and about 50 new miles of high-voltage power lines. The agency has said rapidly rising demands for energy in the area, especially in Williamson and Rutherford counties, make the new station a necessity. Without it, they say, TVA won’t be able to meet the area’s energy demands by 2010.

The community petition, which was presented to TVA this afternoon at the agency’s Murfreesboro customer service center, included around 1,200 signatures, organizers said. It was circulated in the rural areas around College Grove and Eagleville for about three weeks.

“There’s not a free flow of information,” said Williamson County resident Bryan Young, who was there when TVA received the petition.

He and others in the impacted area have said they knew nothing about TVA’s proposal until, in some cases, they learned the agency was considering land on or around their property for the project.

TVA’s proposals wouldn’t require Young or Davis to sell his property, but both said they know others in the community who would be directly impacted.

“We are not out here to say ‘No TVA, go away.’ … we are out here saying before you use eminent domain to take people’s homes, we want to see that you’ve explored all the other options,’” Davis said.

Specifically, he said, TVA should look at ways to promote conservation of electricity before looking to expand its infrastructure to accommodate rising demand.Published: Thursday, 05/11/06

WSMV TV report.

Letters to the Editor: TVA not to blame for energy consumption
The Tennessean
Published: Thursday, 05/11/06

To the Editor:
The article, “Power plan jolts rural area,” May 6, plus the letter by Stephanie Robbins reflects the disconnect between Americans and the consequences of our lifestyle. (“TVA should look elsewhere for land,” May 10)

While I dislike the idea of a new power station that infringes upon the families and vistas in Rutherford County (or anywhere for that matter), it is important that we ask, “why this solution?” The only answer that makes any sense is to inconvenience the fewest citizens to feed America’s growing energy needs.

It is easy to blame TVA, but the burden rests on the shoulders of every citizen to use less energy. America has only 5 percent of the world’s population, but we use 25 percent of earth’s natural resources. The size of new homes in America keeps going up, meaning it takes more energy to heat, cool and light our houses. Houses are filled with power-hungry electric devices. If we maintain our current lifestyles, then some people’s dreams will get crushed to accommodate society’s appetites.

Our leaders should be asking Americans to sacrifice or (gasp) to take a less convenient path in the name of being responsible. They should promote conservation and stigmatize gluttonous consumption. Show us how not to lust for power, money and energy.

If our leaders had the guts, and individual citizens the self-discipline, this power station might not be a “need.” It is you and I who are crushing dreams, not TVA. I know, I am asking a lot, but only because I believe we can do better.

Alan Powell Nashville 37205
editorialresponse@earthlink.net

The Daily News Juurnal
Originally published May 10, 2006

Petition opposes TVA plan
Organizers want to gather 1,000 names
By BYRON HENSLEY
hensley@dnj.com
— Byron Hensley 278-5162

Opponents of TVA’s plans to put a 500-kilovolt electric substation in rural southwestern Rutherford County are signing petitions to be delivered to the utility’s Murfreesboro office Thursday.

Petition organizers hope to gather 1,000 signatures against the power supplier’s plan to build a substation at one of two sites, either just north of Eagleville or in the Patterson community in easternmost Rutherford County near Williamson County.

“This project, consisting of a 50-plus acre substation and dozens of miles of transmission lines throughout our pastoral countryside is not welcome here,” the petition states.

Organizers plan to deliver the petition at 1 p.m. Thursday to the TVA Customer Service Center at 650 Middle Tennessee Blvd. TVA wants to build the new substation to deal with the growth in Rutherford and Williamson counties.

The petition lists potential effects on health, land values, the environment and rural lifestyle, along with concerns that TVA is “prepared to force the sale of family farms and businesses where it does not have easements on.”

A TVA line could come through the property of Pauline Arnold of the Patterson community, a mile off state Route 96 West (Franklin Road). The property has been in her family for many years, and she would like to continue to live there surrounded by family.

“My parents lived there since 1932. Growing up, I went to school here,” she said. “I gave my daughter two acres to build a house. I gave my grandson two acres, and my granddaughter lives in my rental house.”

Joan Fields and her husband moved to their 30-acre property a half-mile from state Route 96 seven years ago. She doesn’t think they could find another place they like as much.

“My husband and I are getting old,” she said. “We moved out here to retire.

“We’ve got a creek in our front yard,” she said. “You can sit on the front porch and watch the creek flow. We have deer and turkey run across our yard every day. We can’t find another place like that. It’s country, and we like it.”

So does Anita Scott, also of the Patterson community, who said the issue affects Rutherford and Williamson counties.

“It’s not just our community, it’s the Rockvale community and a whole lot of the College Grove community that will be impacted by the high-power lines that will be coming through,” Scott said.

A Williamson County community newspaper, the College Grove Courier, has played a large role in the petition drive.

“It’s been very interesting,” said Courier Editor Jennifer Schwartz. “There’s a lot of people up in arms about TVA taking acreage from family homes, century farms, organic farms and it’s all been swept under the carpet, drastically. We’re trying to change that.”

Power lines from the substation would run south of College Grove on easements already owned by TVA, Schwartz said.

“But with these people on the Rutherford County side, they have no easement, no land that’s been sold to the TVA. There’s the fear that TVA will use eminent domain to take land for pennies on the dollar. Stopping the substation in Rutherford County would in turn stop the transmission lines from going through College Grove.”

Owners of land sited as potential locations for the substation only learned of the plans at a TVA open house April 11 and were given 30 days to respond.

Joining the call for TVA to reconsider the location is U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, who stated misgivings about the project in a May 8 letter to TVA Chairman Bill Sansom.

“As it has been proposed by TVA, this line will cut through a large portion of Rutherford County, significantly harming farms and other private property, economic growth, and the environment,” Gordon wrote. “I believe this project as proposed will do more harm than good for the residents of Middle Tennessee.”

Gordon has asked TVA to consider alternative routes and provide detailed estimates of costs associated with each alternative and to extend the public comment period on the project, which ends Friday.

“TVA appears to have ruled out the solution of upgrading existing lines on existing rights of way in Williamson County, which would require less capital investment and have less environmental impact,” Gordon stated. “Instead, TVA appears determined to go a more expensive and disruptive route of acquiring miles of new right of way in Rutherford County.”

Copies of the petition may be signed at the Rutherford Farmers Co-Op at 1217 N. Main St. in Eagleville. Completed petitions are being collected at the College Grove Grocery in downtown College Grove and should be turned in by 8 p.m. at a box beside the newspaper rack.

Copies of the petition may also be downloaded from www.poweroutrage.org, a Web site set up to organize opposition. If you would like to have a copy faxed to you, contact Scott at 395-9294 or Schwartz at 615-330-8757.

Letters to the Editor: TVA should look elsewhere for land
The Tennessean
Published: Wednesday, 5/10/2006

TVA should look elsewhere for land
To the Editor:
I just finished the TVA article about plans to take a large area of farmland to build a substation. (“Power plan jolts rural area,” May 6)

I am totally appalled by this. Not only are they taking away farmland that has been in families up to four generations with no regard whatsoever to those living and making a life there. They feel they have the right to come in and say, “Sell to us, or we’ll condemn and get the property anyway.” That is a shameful thing for TVA to do, just shameful.

This isn’t some area that has been out of service for years and no one wants. This is some of the most beautiful farmland that Tennessee has to offer and it also serves many different people in many ways. So they wouldn’t just be “putting out” the families, they would be affecting all those who are serviced by these farms. I for one, buy hay from the Scotts and have been out to their farm many a time. It is beautiful, so beautiful in fact that my husband would love to have just 10 acres for us to live on, but you don’t see us saying, “Sell or we’ll condemn your property.”

I hope someone from TVA reads this letter and finds some commercial property that hasn’t been used in years, I’m sure there is something somewhere that they could purchase and use. I have been informed that there are two such spots that have been considered.

Please use them and stop picking on the average American farmer who is trying desperately to earn a living while preserving a little piece of family history and land for their own to have when the time comes.

Stephanie Robbins
Smyrna 37167

Residents Determined to Keep Power Plant Out
Posted: 5/10/2006 10:12:28 PM

It’s a fight over the price of progress and development. Residents in Rutherford and Williamson Counties are ready to fight the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Neighbors said they’ll do whatever it takes to keep a proposed power plan out of their neighborhood.

Not many people can call the landscape in question home, but those who do said they’ll do anything to save it.

“It literally is our dream home,” Patterson resident Marcie Silverman said.

If approved, a 60-acre substation will sit on top of the Silverman’s dream home, and the transmission lines will extend across the entire area.

“We won’t sit quietly about this,” Anita Scott said.

Scott is heading up the petition signing campaign.

She and her neighbors are trying to stop the TVA from doing what it says is inevitable.

“I think it would be a crying shame to do this to this area,” Scott said.

Although it looks isolated, the TVA said the area is growing even faster than the national average, and by 2010 the current system can’t possibly meet the power needs so this project is the only solution.

“Taking farmland for a substation, when there is perfectly good, unusable land available, seems to me just a crime,” Scott said.

The TVA insists this is the best location and said it will look at all residents concerns. Those in Patterson worry the TVA’s dream will become their nightmare.

“It makes me really sad,” Silverman said.

Anita Scott and some of her neighbors will present their petition to officials at the TVA customer service center in Murfreesboro Thursday at 1 p.m.

So far they have about 150 signatures which is pretty much the entire community.

The residents say they’re not only concerned about property values, but health risks as well.

The TVA sites studies showing no health risks associated with a substation or power lines.

The Daily News Journal
Originally published May 7, 2006

Growth fuels need for power
BY MARY REEVES

Rapid growth in Rutherford County is not only placing a strain on the highway and schools – it’s draining the power lines as well.

By 2011, TVA estimates many of the transmission lines serving Rutherford and Williamson counties will be overloaded. In order to have additional power sources ready for the influx of customers by that time, TVA has plans to start building a new substation now – in Rutherford County.

Rutherford and neighboring Williamson are two of the state’s fastest-growing counties. Since 1990, their combined population has grown by approximately 46 percent, U.S. Census figures show. With residential construction booming, the demand for power has increased an average of 3.5 percent annually, TVA says.

Since last summer, three alternatives have been considered, including upgrading the Pinhook substation, located between La Vergne and Nashville; building a new substation in the Brentwood area; or building a station in Rutherford County, in the Eagleville area to better access existing rights of way for both Rutherford and Williamson County transmission lines.

Now the opinions have been narrowed to Rutherford.

“It was a combinations of reasons, ” said Charles Nicholson, TVA environmentalist, referring to the decision to drop the Pinhook and Brentwood alternatives. “We would have to take many transmission lines out of service and rebuild them. Because of the need to keep electrical service going to the areas, there were a limited number of lines we could take out of service at one time. There were also foundation issues at Pinhook and residential issues at Brentwood.”

Dense population surrounded the site in Brentwood, he said, and the rock outcroppings at both sites would call for a lot of blasting. Also, because there would not be the issue of interrupting service, the work would be done faster in Rutherford County, he said, and would have a better chance of meeting the 2010 deadline.

“Cost was a factor … in separating the Rutherford from the Brentwood and the Pinhook sites,” said Nicholson. Although the Rutherford County site is estimated to cost more in capital outlay – 8 percent more than the Brentwood site and 3 percent more than the Pinhook site, the overall project cost would be $3 million less than Brentwood and $20 million less than Pinhook.

Julie Vaughn, whose family farm is one of the sites being considered, is torn. While she recognizes the need for more power, she also agonizes over the possibility of losing more than 60 acres of prime farmland – and the family livelihood.

“We do understand that there is a need for the increased power because we have seen the growth in both Rutherford and Williamson County,” she said. “Our suggestion is to use the existing right of way or use an abandoned industrial site, like the battery plant out by Kirkland. We don’t know if they’ve investigated using commercial property. We would just as soon they take another look and re-evaluate.”

Two of the things she would like to see TVA engineers re-evaluate are the other sites.

“(Pinhook) is already there, and the power lines are already run – you wouldn’t be interrupting about 300 people’s property rights,” Vaughn said.

When scouting for a new station site, Nicholson said a variety of conditions are studied.

“There’s a combination of a lot of different properties,” he said. “The foundation conditions, bedrock, soil conditions, how close it is to road systems, other transmission lines, the amount of development in the area, other houses in the area, as well as a whole range of other environmental factors, wetlands and rare species.”

Nicholson said a wetlands survey had not been done of the areas being considered yet.

On the TVA Web site, visitors can find the Rutherford-Williamson-Davidson Power Supply Improvement Project Environmental Impact Statement Scoping Document, which details each site and the reasons given for choosing, or not choosing, each of them.

It also includes environmental issues to be addressed in the study: Water quality and quantity for both surface water and groundwater; vegetation; wildlife, including habitat fragmentation; aquatic ecology; endangered and threatened species and their critical habitats; wetlands; managed areas and ecologically significant sites; recreation; visual resources; flood plains; land use – including prime farmland; archaeological and historic resources; and socioeconomics, including property values and environmental justice.

Undeveloped land is another factor TVA looks for.

“In this context, yes, we would consider farmland as ‘undeveloped,’” said Nicholson. “‘Developed’ would be houses and commercial developments.”

The proposed 500-kilovolt substation will require about 60 acres that TVA would purchase from the landowner, as well as rights of way for the transmission towers and lines. Although TVA already has several rights of way in the area, it would need more.

“We are going to have to purchase some rights of way. We buy an easement that gives us the right to build and maintain the transmission line, it also restricts the property. We would purchase land for station,” Nicholson said, adding that it would be at fair market value. Using eminent domain would, he said, “only be as a last resort. We try to work with the landowners as much as possible.”

“Where they are wanting to take it, they would need to purchase the entire farm, not just the 60 acres,” said Vaughn. “They are going to leave us with a border that is basically useless.”

The Patterson site being considered is about 310 acres along Patterson Road, about two miles east of Highway 41A/31A, and would be able to access the currently vacant Hartsville-Maury transmission line right of way, as well as the Murfreesboro-Triune-East Franklin transmission line.

The second potential site in Rutherford County is in a 750-acre area on Rocky Glade Road, about two miles northeast of Eagleville, and is also close to existing transmission lines or rights of way. The Maury right of way was purchased in the 1970s to construct the Hartsville-Maury transmission line that was never completed. Although most of it was never cleared, TVA has maintained ownership.

Additional lines would be necessary, but Nicholson said TVA tries to place them carefully.

“We would not build it over a school building, and we would try to keep it as far from school property as possible,” he said.

The lines from the substation would be transmission lines, high voltage power lines moving the electricity elsewhere, as compared to the distribution power lines that bring electricity to the home. Those owners with TVA right of way easements on their property – which should be detailed in the deed – have to follow a set of guidelines about the easement, including no buildings or tall trees near the towers or lines.

There is opposition to the proposed substation, especially among the 300 or so Eagleville residents whose property – and property values – will be affected. There was similar opposition to the Brentwood site, but Nicholson said the public outcry was not the reason the site was eliminated as a prospect.

“Public opinion is something we consider, but there were other factors involved,” he said. “We hope the local residents will accept it wherever we put it, but we know that’s not always the case.”

The Daily News Journal
Originally published May 7, 2006

Quiet communities fear substation will ruin rural lifestyle
By BYRON HENSLEY
hensley@dnj.com
- Byron Hensley – 278-5162

TVA’s plans to build a 500-kilovolt substation either in Eagleville or the Patterson community may be a necessary response to growing demand for power in the region.

But there are many potential neighbors of the power plant and its adjacent power lines who are fearful of the effect on their communities.

“It’s a very quiet community,” said Anita Scott of Patterson. “A substation would turn it into an industrial nightmare.”

TVA, when it makes its final selection, would purchase the homes and farms that would constitute the 60 acres of the substation site, of which 40 acres would constitute the station’s actual footprint. Scott fears the effects on property values of surrounding properties.

“The people who live around will be pushed out without adequate compensation,” Scott said. “People who live across the street from it, even if it doesn’t touch their property, they’re still definitely going to be impacted.

“All four sites that are being considered are being used for some farming,” Scott said. “There’s a lot of land in Rutherford County that doesn’t have any alternative use. Wouldn’t that be a great place for a substation?”

Barbara Montgomery has had a presence on her farm in the Patterson community all her life. Although she lived in Nashville as a girl, she spent summers on the farm with her aunt and uncle.

“The most devastating proposal is the substation,” Montgomery said. “It’s not within visibility of my house, but we have neighbors and friends who would be so affected by this.”

TVA’s plans call for the plant to be constructed by 2010. Affected families only learned of the plans at an open house held by TVA on April 11.

“That is so terrible that they could come in here and do this,” she said. “This is not something they thought of overnight. It’s probably been on the drawing board for a couple of years, and we knew nothing about it until two weeks ago.

“It just seems as though we don’t have any say so as far as our own property is concerned,” she said. “It’s going to devaluate the whole community.”

Montgomery’s neighbor Marcie Silverman said she and her husband, David, love the 15-acre horse farm where they live on Rehobath Road in the Patterson community. Most of the farm would probably be taken for the substation.

“I don’t like the idea at all,” she said.

The Silvermans moved to Tennessee seven years ago because of David’s job in Franklin, and found the farm, called Sterling Farm, two years ago. Marcie, a stay-at-home mom with a 4-year-old son and another on the way, thinks it would be a good place to raise kids.

“This is our dream home,” she said. “We like having horses here. It’s a lovely property. We made a lot of improvements to it. We totally remodeled the kitchen. The house is about six or seven years old, it’s a brand new home. It’s sad.

“From our community’s perspective, it doesn’t seem right to put a huge power station here,” Silverman said. “It’s all farmland out here, and it’s really going to be an eyesore. We just can’t believe they would choose this site.”

Silverman said it’s their understanding that there was a public hearing on the project last July, but neither they nor their neighbors were notified.

Meanwhile, in Eagleville, Jim and Julie Vaughn are waiting to see if TVA will choose their 55 acre property as part of the site for the new substation.

Julie Vaughn remembers the feelings that went through her at the April 11 open house, where the members of the Eagleville and Patterson communities learned TVA’s plans for the new substation.

“I guess a shock would be the first thing, then kind of unbelievable sense that this was happening to us, that you can live in America, work hard for a dream, and it can be permanently taken away,” she said.

“I understand it’s a good cause, everybody needs electricity, but it’s hard to think that somebody who doesn’t know who you are can take your dream away.

“We’re a diversified family farm, a second generation family farm,” Julie Vaughn said. “My father-in-law has lived here all his life, he’s been on this road for 70 years.” Jim has a job, but they get much of their income from the farm, which they call Rocky Glade Farm.

“We raise grass fed beef, pork and lamb, naturally grown vegetables which we sell directly to customers in Murfreesboro and Franklin through the Farmer’s Market and on-farm pick up,” Julie Vaughn said. “We’ve been following the direct marketing aspect of it for eight years.”

“Basically, they’re looking for an open spot, and they want really good soil because they’re going to have to dig footers for the transformers. Our soil is good, with few rock outcrops on it. I understand why they picked it. If it’s good for farming, it’s good for building.”

The Vaughns have been told they can stay and continue to farm on the parts that won’t be taken by TVA, but they believe having the substation there would destroy their business.

“We’re not really interested in living next to a 500 kilovolt substation. We can’t continue to farm and sell to our customers. Our customers are health conscious, and they are not interested in buying foods that are grown close to that much voltage.

“It’s hard to think that something you can’t control would harm something you’ve worked so long to achieve,” she said.

“We enjoy living here,” she said. “We’re not really interested in moving. We haven’t even thought about that.”

The Daily News Journal
Originally published May 7, 2006

Residents raise electromagnetic health questions
By MARY REEVES
mreeves@dnj.com

While many Eagleville residents are concerned about the loss of prime farmland or their homes, there are other concerns associated with the potential 500-kilovolt substation TVA plans to build there, especially health concerns.

“Some of the literature … pointed out that there is an increase in leukemia with power lines,” said Lisa Matson of Rockvale. “There is a link between cancer and electromagnetic fields, and my concern is they are going to put this directly behind the school.”

Electric and magnetic fields are generated by all sorts of power sources, from nature’s thunderstorms to the office photocopier. With man-made power sources, the electrical fields result from the energizing of the wiring, and the magnetic fields result from the flow of power (current) as it serves the load being applied. “EMF” refers to electric and magnetic fields and “ELF” refers to extremely low frequency, the sort found in the transmission power lines.

Since America’s use of power surged in the late 1950s, studies have been done on the effects of high voltage lines on the environment, but other than accidental electrocutions, it appears the magnetic fields may be the culprit of the health concerns.

“Although a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established, several expert panels have concluded that higher rates of childhood leukemia are statistically associated with higher levels of magnetic fields in homes,” stated a report of the Electric Power Research Institute, which is conducting long-term multidisciplinary EMF research through major universities, laboratories and consulting organizations.

Matson, like many concerned with the proposed substation, had found information about the possible links between childhood leukemia and magnetic fields at www.poweroutrage.com, a Web site devoted to fighting the TVA plan.

Findings of the EMF RAPID Program (Electric and Magnetic Fields Research and Public Information Dissemination) completed in 1998 agree that there seems to be a link between proximity to EMF and increased rates of childhood leukemia, and, in adults who work in the electric industry, increased rate of adult CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia), which is a different disease.

The EMF RAPID program was conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy. Although it was primarily funded by the government to comply with the Energy Policy Act, it was also funded by utility companies.

The Executive Summary of the EMF RAPID report stated : “The scientific evidence suggesting that ELF-EMF exposures pose any health risk is weak. The strongest evidence for health effects comes from associations observed in human populations with two forms of cancer: childhood leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia in occupationally exposed adults.”

The problem was, the evidence was epidemiological — that is, it showed an association between magnetic fields and in increase in incidents, but no cause-and-effect relationship could be recreated in the laboratory.

The RAPID report also indicated that “interface from EMF can affect various medical devices, including cardiac pacemakers and implantable defibrillators.”

In the summary, the working group of scientists and other experts concluded that “ELF EMF are possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

The report stated there was “inadequate evidence” that EMF ELF caused Alzheimer’s, ALS, breast cancer, suicide and depression, adverse effects on pregnancies and other health concerns. The study did find, however, that “exposure to electric and magnetic fields affects bone repair and adaptation.”

Power substations and powerlines are not the only source for ELF EMF, however. According to lessemf.com, “2.5 mG is the generally accepted limit of ELF magnetic field exposure, but no one tells you that the average hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, or can opener you use emits and amazing 300 mG or more.”

Another concern, one voiced the Vaughn family in Eagleville, who produce organically grown animals and crops for human consumption, was the effect the ELF EMF may have on their produce, and on those who consume the produce.

“Nobody’s ever really said anything about that,” said Pettus Read with the Tennessee Farm Bureau about the effect on plants. “We’ve had soybean fields and such under these powerlines. We’ve never had any complaints.”

Read said he didn’t believe the amount of ELF EMF created at that level would have an adverse affect on the plants, but said he did not know for sure and was not aware of any studies.

“The biggest complaint we’ve had is losing the farm land,” he added.

Roger Sparry, TVA manager of siting and environmental engineer, said that while there has been some epidemiological evidence between the possibility to ELF EMF and some cancers, he, too, had heard of no negative effects on plants.

“I’ve never heard of any reports of it directly affecting plants,” he said.

— Mary Reeves/278-5157

The Tennessean
Published: Saturday, 05/06/06

By CLAY CAREY
Staff Writer

Marcie and David Silverman found their dream home in southwest Rutherford County, a simple but elegant brick house on 15 acres of pastureland, surrounded by working farms.

They bought it, Marcie Silverman says, to escape the crowded neighborhoods of Franklin. Now, the growth that drove them out of Williamson County is threatening their new home.

The Silvermans and several other families in that part of Rutherford are holding their collective breath as the Tennessee Valley Authority considers land that includes their homes and farms as possible sites for a 60-acre, steel-and-concrete substation.

Without the substation, TVA says, it won’t be able to meet the skyrocketing energy demands created in large part by growth in Rutherford and Williamson counties. Mur-freesboro could need as many as 4,000 new hookups in the city this year and 5,000 next year. Another electric provider expects to add as many as 32,000 new customers to the 112,000 it already has in those counties.

But many who live in and around the four sites selected as its possible footprint fear the substation’s forest of towers and high-voltage transmission lines will cost them their rural identity and, in some cases, their homes and livelihoods.

“We will find another place to live, but we don’t think we’ll find another place like this,” said Marcie Silverman. If TVA decides to build on a site near the intersection of Rehobeth and Patterson roads, the substation would take her family’s home, much of their property and the barn where Marcie boards horses.

“The thing that bothers us the most about it is that it’s such a wide-open community. This is going to be an eyesore to the area,” she said. “It’s just going to be a monstrosity.”

The new 500-kilovolt substation will supply power primarily to Rutherford, Williamson and south Davidson counties, according to Roger Sparry, TVA’s manager of siting and environmental design.

Rutherford and Williamson are two of the state’s fastest-growing counties. According to U.S. Census estimates, their populations grew by a combined 46 percent between 1990 and 2005.

Demand for power in the area has kept pace, increasing by an average of 3.5 percent a year since 1990, according to TVA estimates.

At that rate, Sparry said, the demand for electricity will exceed TVA’s capacity by 2010.

Two entities, Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corp. and the Murfreesboro Electric Department, distribute most of the electricity that TVA produces for Rutherford and Williamson. Both project substantial growth in demand.

MTEMC has about 62,000 power customers in Williamson and about 50,000 in Rutherford. The power provider expects Rutherford County’s customer base to increase by 10,000 to 12,000 in five years. In Williamson County, it’s looking like 17,500 to 20,000 more customers in five years.

Larry Kirk, general manager of the Murfreesboro Electric Department, also expects big jumps. Right now, the department powers about 45,000 customers inside the city’s limits. Kirk expects 4,000 new hookups this year and as many as 5,000 next year and doesn’t anticipate that pace letting up.

Power substations “are major installations. We only build those when there are major needs in the power system,” Sparry said.

Rutherford’s new substation will require about 50 miles of new transmission lines. Some will be built on existing TVA rights of way; others will require acquisitions. TVA expects the substation and new transmission lines to cost about $96 million.

Sparry said the Rutherford sites had generated “a lot of inquiries” but little in the way of organized opposition. Often, he said, communities resist such projects.

“There may be some folks who would prefer not to live next to a substation or power lines or a food store or any other commercial or industrial effort,” he said.

Many in the substation’s possible paths say they’re still trying to figure out exactly what TVA is
proposing and what, if anything, they can do to stop it. The agency first started telling property owners about its plans at an open house last month after it had identified the four potential sites. About 800 landowners were invited.

Anita Scott went to the open house expecting to give up a little bit of land for power lines. Instead, she learned that part of the farm that has been in her family for four generations was inside the same substation footprint that would cost the Silvermans their home.

“If there is a substation here, we’ll be gone,” Scott said, choking back tears as she looked over her family farm. “That is huge. My family has lived here forever.”

Jim and Julie Vaughn are under similar stress. One proposed site would consume a large chunk of their property, Rocky Glade Farm. The farm, near Eagleville and about three miles south of Scott’s homestead, is their primary source of income — they sell beef, pork, lamb, eggs and vegetables it produces.

If TVA selects their site, Julie Vaughn said, its substation would land right in the middle of Rocky Glade Farm. “It is the best ground that we have,” Vaughn said.

They wouldn’t lose their home, but the Vaughns would probably try to sell their property anyway.

“I don’t think we could look at that every day and think about what it took away,” Julie Vaughn said.

The agency could select its preferred site in the next two to three months, Sparry said. TVA would start acquiring land for the project in fall 2007, and construction is scheduled to begin that winter.

Convenience led TVA to the four sites under consideration. The agency was looking for level land that would make for easy road and power line connections.

“We fully understand the sentimental value some people attach to their property,” Sparry said. “Obviously, we can’t address sentimental value. Those issues are very hard to deal with.”

Sparry said TVA would try to buy as much property as it needs, basing offers on comparable land deals in the area. If that doesn’t succeed, TVA has the authority to condemn land for its projects, in which case a court would set the price the agency pays for it.

“We work with property owners and really have a pretty successful track record without having to go the condemnation route,” Sparry said.

Scott doesn’t want to sell her property, but, like others in the affected areas, she believes TVA will just take her land if it is ultimately chosen. “There won’t be a choice. We were pretty well told that,” Scott said.

The Vaughns went another step. Not long after they learned their farm was on TVA’s site list, they hired a land-use attorney.

“This will impact our lives in such a huge way. We want to make sure we are informed as we can be about our rights,” Julie Vaughn said. “This is our livelihood, how we make our living. We can’t afford to make a mistake.”

Others are simply waiting for TVA to give them an idea of what the future holds. The Scotts and Silvermans are both holding off on home renovations.

“Everybody’s life is on hold,” Scott said. “We’re just waiting.” •