ATC begins tree cutting in Underwood Parkway

Those who have been following the Underwood Creek Parkway controversy about placing power lines through there to provide power to the proposed We Energies substation on the County Grounds know that permission was granted by the WI Public Service Commission months ago. (Read my original post describing the issues by clicking here.)

The work began in earnest recently. Wauwatosa, an officially designated "Tree City USA," is losing more of them. The power lines will run along the north side of the railroad tracks from the existing powerlines near 119th St. to 115th St. (above) They will then cross the tracks, the road, and Underwood Creek to follow the Oak Leaf Trail east of 115th St. (below)

I don't know what is being done in the park between the Parkway road and the creek west of 115th, but something is. Construction fences surround many of the existing trees and cyclone fences surround at least two sections where work is being done. Here's what it looked like over the weekend.

Power lines and parklands don't mix

I just returned from the Wauwatosa City Hall where a public hearing is underway regarding the plans to run transmission lines through parts of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa. The new lines would provide power to a planned substation to be built by We Energies next to its existing plant on the County Grounds. (Read more about these plans. Pictures included in earlier post.)

Much of the testimony was from people associated with either St. Theresa or the Milwaukee Montessori School, both of which will be impacted if plans proceed to run overhead power lines along their properties. I agree with their position that power lines should run underground. Since I don’t live next to any of the proposed routes, my concern is more general. However, it is no less passionate. I don't believe that this is merely a local issue.

Here is the gist of my testimony:

Many of us have heard from representatives of the ATC that the Commission will be choosing a power line route solely on an economic basis, that the cheapest route is always chosen. Furthermore, since parklands will always be less expensive to develop than locations with existing development, they will always be sacrificed for this inherent short-term economic advantage.

I hope that the ATC has mischaracterized the Commission’s intentions, that your deliberations will prove more flexible than they have claimed and that your understanding of the economics involved is more nuanced. If the only economic consideration is the narrow one that considers only the cost of constructing a power line, then by default our community will lose its parklands. More than that, every community where these circumstances exist will sacrifice parkland. Sadly, the places this loss will be felt the greatest is where they can least afford it, densely populated urban areas like ours.

There are many ways besides the cost of construction, of course, to measure economic costs – and benefits. In this case the benefits of preserving parkland and the benefits of burying the lines outweigh the narrow, short-term economic considerations. Some of the benefits are less tangible, like quality of life, but others truly are economic, like property valuations and the costs of physical and emotional health. These costs would not be bourn by the ATC but by the larger community. Ultimately, the short-term economic argument makes everyone poorer.

This is not just hearsay. There is legal precedent for the larger, more long-term economic view. In a 1971 ruling the US Supreme Court established in principle that parks should not be developed solely because they would be the cheapest alternative.

The loss of scarce parkland in urban areas is not an insignificant issue. Because of the well-documented benefits the current trend in cities throughout the country is to revitalize open spaces and to increase parklands wherever possible. Wisconsin has a well-earned reputation for its concern for the natural environment. If power lines are allowed to be built in urban parklands, not only will local communities suffer, but our reputation will be tarnished. It not only will be a huge step backwards but one that goes against prevailing wisdom.

I urge the Commission, as so many others are doing, to choose a route other than Underwood Parkway and to bury the lines.  (End of testimony.)

I might have added that, as a ratepayer myself I am willing to pay the extra amount that would be charged to pay for underground transmission lines. I also don’t understand why the ATC (as opposed to the PSC) has been so insistent that the cheapest route be chosen. Their interest, which is to profit from the construction of the line, is served in any case.

Preserve Our Parks opposes power lines in parkway

Please write to the American Transmission Company (ATC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) and add your voices to keep power lines out of Underwood Parkway. The more letters they receive the more impact they will have. Contact information is at the bottom of this post.

Below is the text of the letter being sent by Preserve Our Parks (POP) to the ATC and the PSC in opposition to siting of the proposed power line. POP's is a principled position that doesn't recommend either of the two proposed routes from the west. Instead it recognizes the public interest in preserving parklands and open green space. (Full disclosure: I'm on the POP board and drafted the letter for the board's approval.)

I have posted two times before on this topic. To read the earlier posts and learn more about the issues, go to my statement or to public hearing. Informative photos accompany those posts, as usual.

The letter:

RE:          Transmission line routes to new County Grounds Substation

Preserve Our Parks, as its name indicates, is an organization dedicated to the preservation of parks and public green spaces. We would like to make known for the record our position on the proposed routes for the transmission lines that are planned for the Milwaukee County Grounds in Wauwatosa.

·      We oppose routing power lines, whether overhead or underground, in any part of Underwood Parkway. This would effectively eliminate most of Route B from consideration.

·      If Route A is chosen, then the segment that runs along Highway 45 through the County Grounds, should be underground. Alternatively, Route A could be used until it reaches the County Grounds at which point it could switch to the underground segment of Route B.

·      We believe that the principle of preserving the public’s interest in undisturbed parks and green spaces should be a primary consideration over and above the economics of one route versus another.

Our opposition to Route B is consistent with the position of Milwaukee County Parks Department and many other organizations concerned about parks, wildlife habitats, wetlands, open green space, and the recreational use of the Oak Leaf Trail, all of which would be compromised if a power line were sited within the Parkway. Since no other public parkway in Milwaukee County has been transformed into a power corridor, this also would set a precedent that we believe is not in the public interest.

The Parkway should not be chosen simply because it is the cheapest route since it is inherently less expensive to develop in parklands than in places with established development. Although the specifics of the case dealt with road construction instead of power lines, this principle was established in U.S. Supreme Court case law in CITIZENS TO PRESERVE OVERTON PARK v. VOLPE, 401 U.S. 402 (1971).

The decision about which two of four routes to use for these transmission lines assumes the need for additional power in this area, an assumption we do not necessarily share. We urge the Public Service Commission to look closely at this assumption and to examine other options available. These should include ambitious and creative reconsideration of how power is used by the Milwaukee County Medical Complex as well as requiring any new development at Innovation Park, the Research Park, and elsewhere to meet stringent and sustainable limits on energy usage.

Contact info:

ATC will be accepting comments until mid-January.  Email Mary Carpenter: mcarpenter@atcllc.com

The PSC is responsible for the final decision. Therefore a letter to them is critical to provide support for the parkway.

PSC: Reference the Western Milwaukee County Electric Reliability Project, Docket #5-CE-139. Email Mr. Ali Wali:  ali.wali@wisconsin.gov

Power lines may ruin what remains of parkway

Who will speak for nature? Who will speak for Underwood Parkway?

“I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness….” – Henry David Thoreau      

       Like Thoreau, I would like to speak a word for nature. Although the “freedom and wildness” that our parks provide us in Milwaukee County can hardly be called “absolute,” that doesn’t make them less valuable or less deserving of protection. So, let me speak a word for relative freedom and wildness.

      Once upon a time Underwood Creek was as free and wild as any other stream in Wisconsin. Then houses were built near it and the Menomonee River, into which it flows. Eventually, flooding occurred. What followed, for long portions of Underwood Creek, was called channelization. Riparian woodlands were chopped down, the meandering stream was bulldozed straight, and its channel was lined with concrete. This “solution” was not only temporary; ultimately it led to increased flooding.

            Current plans for Underwood Creek include the removal of concrete and the restoration of a more naturally meandering stream. This already has been done for the short stretch that runs next to Hwy 100 as well as for stretches of other waterways in the county.

      Despite the degradations to which it has been subjected, Underwood Creek is valued enough to be part of the award-winning Milwaukee County Parkway system. A popular segment of the Oak Leaf Trail runs through it. Furthermore, a short stretch of the original, un-channeled creek lies in a densely wooded, swampy area. This is a place that is just about as free and wild as nature gets around here, a place where even Thoreau might have found what he termed the healing “tonic of wildness.”

Sadly, unless there is concerted public effort to preserve it, this small bit of urban wilderness may soon be destroyed.

      As reported recently in Wauwatosa Patch, WeEnergies is planning to build a new substation on the Milwaukee County Grounds. Electrical power will be brought to the substation via two new transmission lines to be constructed by the AmericanTransmission Co. (ATC). Four routes are being considered, from which two will be selected by the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Map of four proposed alternatives

      One of the proposed alternatives would run 60- to 100-foot-tall high-voltage overhead power lines through Underwood Parkway. If this route is chosen, an 80-foot right-of-way would be cleared, effectively destroying one of the few natural areas left in Wauwatosa. What is potentially more distressing to the many people who use it, utility poles and overhead cables also would run along the off-road portion of the Oak Leaf bike trail between 115^th St. and Watertown Plank Rd.

      This doesn’t have to happen. There are three viable alternatives. Unfortunately for the parkway and the people who enjoy it, other alternatives run along residential streets. The prospect of having your yard and street dug up for a buried power line, even temporarily, is a powerful incentive to become a vocal opponent of that alternative. This is to be expected and it is how a solution that benefits the few may win out over a solution that benefits the many.

      The parkway and Oak Leaf Trail need vocal opponents of the Underwood Creek alternative. Only if many people are willing to speak a word for nature will we save it.   

      Please attend the open house on Sept. 12 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Wauwatosa Civic Center, 7725 W. North Ave. ATC experts will be able to answer questions about the project and explain how to provide input to the PSC. (You can email comments to info@atcllc.com if you cannot attend the meeting.)  

      The PSC will rule on the final two routes based on input received from all interested parties, including ordinary citizens as well as residents of affected neighborhoods and major stakeholders such as the Milwaukee Regional Medical Complex and UWM.

      No one wants overhead power lines obstructing their own views. Cables will be buried in sensitive locations, like the Medical Complex, UWM’s Innovation Park, and residential neighborhoods. But this is expensive. From a purely economic standpoint, the parkway seems an attractive alternative because the overhead power lines would save money. From a political standpoint, the parkway lacks residents who complain. From an ecological and recreational standpoint, however, overhead power lines and an 80-foot wide swath of clear-cut are anything but attractive.

      It is ironic that just three months ago Wauwatosa announced a new branding campaign for which the theme of the city will be Innovation Parkway. If the city is going to promote the value of its parkways – as it should – sacrificing one of them in this fashion would be antithetical to the effort. Officials in Wauwatosa who support the Innovation Parkway theme, as well as all Milwaukee County users of the Oak Leaf Trail should be pounding home the point – power lines do not belong anywhere near our parkways.

For the benefit of all, let us speak a word for nature…!

      Here is an Underwood Parkway photo essay with explanatory captions. Click to enlarge each photo.

This view west from 115th St. is the channelized Underwood Creek most people see.

This is a view of the original creek that still exists in a little-known natural area immediately north of the previous view.

This set of tracks bisects the parkway and separates the two channels pictured above.

Underwood Parkway drive and Oak Leaf Trail immediately south, adjacent to the channelized creek pictured at top.

This existing power line, at 119th St., is where the proposed new transmission line would begin. An 80-foot-wide right-of-way would be cut through the woodland to the right.

This wetland would be in the power line right-of-way. Wetlands, which slow and absorb stormwater run off, are important for flood management and groundwater recharge.

The off-road segment of the Oak Leaf Trail east of 115th St. If the Underwood Creek Parkway alternative is chosen, this scene would include overhead power lines 60-100 feet tall.

Alternative routes that run through residential neighborhoods, like this Walnut St. route, would use buried cables.