By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County commissioners court members have agreed to send a letter outlining their concerns about the possible placement of a major electrical transmission line through the county.
The court voted on sending the letter after discussing the proposed transmission line during a special meeting earlier today.
A number of Val Verde County landowners also attended the special meeting and expressed their concerns about the transmission line.
The focus of the landowners’ concerns was a letter sent to Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw by a representative of Power Engineers Inc. of Austin.
The letter discusses the proposed placement of a 300-mile, single-circuit, 765-kilovolt transmission line from the southwest side of San Antonio to a proposed AEP Texas station 28 miles west-northwest of Ft. Stockton along 1-10. The proposed transmission line could traverse Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Crockett, Edwards, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, Medina, Pecos, Real, Sutton, Terrell, Uvalde and Val Verde Counties.
Several of the landowners who attended the meeting spoke to the court about their concerns, beginning with rancher Dell Dickinson, who told the court his educational and professional background was in electrical engineering.
“I do have some knowledge about what this transmission line does in terms of EMF forces and stuff like that. . . Basically I’m just a real simple guy. I just say it like I believe it. I don’t think we need to do any environmental studies on a line of this nature. The least costly, the most efficient and the easiest way to put this line in is simply to follow the I-10 corridor,” Dickinson said.
Owens said the reason for the special meeting was for the court to receive input on the proposal. He said a response to the letter sent to Wardlaw had been requested by April 7.
Owens said it is his understanding the transmission line is part of ongoing efforts by ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) to stabilize the state’s electrical grid.
Owens also invited landowner Ronda Hargrove to speak, and she said she wanted to know why Laughlin Air Force Base was not involved in the discussion about the transmission line.
“Wouldn’t (the line) be a tremendous detriment to them?” she asked.
“I’m all about the health issues that this stuff is doing to us and our kids that nobody wants to talk about, with this stuff coming through, the 5G towers and everything else, so I was kind of
place a major electrical transmission line through Val Verde County. County
commissioners court held a special meeting today to discuss the proposed line. (Photo by
Karen Gleason)
surprised that there was nobody here from Laughlin,” Hargrove added.
Owens said he was sure the state would have to clear the project with Laughlin or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and noted any environmental issues would also have to be taken into consideration.
“The county doesn’t have a department for that. They’ll have to take it up with the state or the federal government. The landowners are going to have to figure out how they’re either going to allow them to go through their properties or not allow them to go through their properties. The county can’t get involved with that,” Owens said, adding he had “a little bit of a problem” in “hooking up the wagon to the environmental issues when we have pipelines that run all through our county.”
Landowner Byron Hodge also addressed the court.
“This is a transmission line, not a distribution line, so there’s absolutely no benefit to Val Verde County for this line to come through here. No one is going to be able to hook into that and get an electric supply. . . I know absolutely nothing about electricity, but from what Dell tells me, these towers are going to be huge and they’re going to be an eyesore of probably the same magnitude as these wind turbines, and because of the fact that the bulk of Val Verde County, certainly that part north of Del Rio, is all ranchland and the value of it today is recreational.
“I don’t think anything that you do to the country to affect its scenic beauty for recreational purposes is going to do anything but decrease the value of the land and that does have an effect on the communities that the recreational people use when they’re here, so my objection is, it’s not a distribution line, it’s a transmission line and it has no benefit that I can see, to Val Verde County or the people who live here and has a potentially serious adverse consequence to the properties it passes through,” Hodge said.
Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores suggested contacting the company that sent the letter and seeing if a substation for electrical distribution could be placed along the line in the county so that the county and city could see some future benefit from the project.
“Today’s meeting is just to see if we’re going to oppose the line,” Owens said.
Assistant County Attorney John Clemmer commented, “And what we’re saying ‘oppose,’ in reality what we’re doing at this moment, is pointing out all of the potential hurdles that could be in the way of the power company if they choose to run through Val Verde County.”
Owens then delineated those issues, including dealing with the landowners, environmental concerns and the height of the towers and whether they would affect Laughlin’s flying operations.
“I’m not against stopping this power line. I think there’s going to be enough obstacles in their way that they’re going to have to go deal with without us jumping in front of them to try and stop it, which we really can’t, but raising concerns would be our job, in my opinion,” Owens said.
Wardlaw also spoke to the court and audience about the project.
“A lot of people don’t realize it, but Val Verde County is the mecca in Texas for endangered and threatened species, plants, insects, birds and mammals. . . We are also a mecca for archeological sites in the state of Texas, and I think it’s our responsibility to protect these people (landowners) and their properties,” Wardlaw said.
Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia said he believes people need to understand that a “study area” for the transmission line has been proposed, “but there are no routes proposed, and we don’t know anything, just that we’re in the proposed study area.”
Opposing the line outright would be “putting the cart before the horse,” Garcia added.
Garcia agreed with Owens that the court should write a letter pointing out areas of concern regarding the project.
“To actually say that we’re opposed to it, then I have a problem with that because they’re trying to make the (state electrical) grid more resilient and more redundant. How can we be opposed to that? We all sat here for a week and froze our butts off (in 2021),” Garcia said.
Owens then made a motion the county send a letter to the company, the county’s state representatives and Laughlin listing “all the issues and concerns we have with this going through Val Verde County.”
Clemmer said he would add “pending county attorney review and approval” to the motion, and Owens said he would add that phrase.
Owens said the letter would list all of the issues raised during the meeting.
Flores gave the second to the judge’s motion, and the court unanimously approved the motion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
