Group fears transmission line will ruin Cole Harbour trail

A local group fear a new $20-million power transmission-line project will ruin the Cole Harbour trails system.

"This is a provincial park. Having a 100-foot tower running through it would be hideous," said Jim Tudor, spokesperson for the Cole Harbour Park and Trails Association.

Cole Harbour and Eastern Passage have seen considerable growth in recent years and Nova Scotia Power says the existing electricity supply for the area is reaching capacity.

A new line between Westphal and Eastern Passage is needed to ensure adequate electricity supply, and improve reliability for the area.

The exact route of the line has not yet been established, but one potential route option for the 11-kilometre, 138-kilovolt transmission line shows a path through the park and along a section of the Cole Harbour Heritage Trail.

"If this was Point Pleasant or the (Halifax) Public Gardens, they wouldn't even think about it. There should be places where people can go for a walk in Mother Nature and see nothing but Mother Nature," said Tudor.

The project is scheduled to begin in spring 2011, but discussions of the line first began back in the '90s.

"We dealt with this issue back in 1997 and thought, hoped, it had gone away," said Tudor.

The Weekly News obtained copies of a series of letters negotiating the original plans for the project. In a letter to HRM's municipal clerk's office, dated June 13, 1997, Nova Scotia Power's then-president and CEO David Mann committed a plan to install the lines underground: "In reviewing this situation, I understand that initial discussions regarding our routing of a new transmission line for Cole Harbour began five years ago with the Department of Natural Resources. Negotiations were finalized in 1994. Shortly after, we were informed of the Department's intention to turn a portion of the area in question into park land. To accommodate this change, we readily agreed to install our lines underground in the designated park area, along proposed park trails. We believe that this proposal will minimize any impact to the natural landscape."

The Cole Harbour Heritage Park was designated a provincial park in 1997.

Tudor hopes Nova Scotia Power will honour this agreement.

"I believe they have a legal option to go underground based on the documents we have from 93, 94 and 97. So we simply feel they should honour those previous commitments."

Tudor said another area of concern is a new trail that the Cole Harbour Heritage Park and Trail Association is currently working on, which would be directly affected by this new line.

"We've already started the first phase and we're almost connected to Cole Harbour Road," said Tudor. "Our concern is that the new Nova Scotia Power corridor will come across the ridge land and drop right down on our trail and stay on top of our trail right through the whole process. We have a problem with that."

According to Duncan Morum, project manager for Nova Scotia Power, even though there's nothing there in terms of a new trail at the moment, the potential of the new trail could run alongside their planned corridor.

"We've got no new line specified at the moment, but if we went alongside the lake, we'd be getting into the same kind of area as this new trail," said Morum.

He said the commitment made in 1997 refers to the provincial park land only, which is on the other side of Bissett Road.

One of the issues facing the $20-million project is that underground transmission lines are 10 times more expensive.

"This was a project that was on the radar as something that would eventually have to be done, but the growth hadn't gotten to the point in the 90s that it needed to be done. Now, we're getting to that point where the most recent expansion and new growth in Eastern Passage and through Cole Harbour has just reached the point where you can't put it off," said David Rodenhiser, communications advisor with Nova Scotia Power.

Lorelei Nicoll, councillor for District 4 Cole Harbour, says some of the concerns she's hearing from constituents are destruction of natural habitat and potential loss and devaluating of property.

Jay Guptill, Lead Pastor at Hillside Wesleyan Church at 50 Ritcey Cr., Cole Harbour, says he's concerned what this project will mean to the church's property.

"If they go underground, it probably isn't going to be as critical on the outskirts of the property, but if they're using these 125-foot towers and one happens to go right through the middle of our unused property, than that means we can't develop in the future."

The power poles for the new line would be between 50 to 100 feet high, depending on the topography, and the type of pole would be a newer type of steel transmission pole, rather than the wooden structures with the x's across them, Rodenhiser said.

Guptill said he only learned about the May 20 meeting this week and is unable to attend, but he held a meeting with a small number of concerned criticizes a few days ago to try to understand the issue better and be more informed of the situation.

"I've been encouraging people to go to the meeting, so we can know for sure what is being proposed, and if there is going to be an impact on our property, we'd love for people to share their opinions about that," said Guptill.

Alan Mitchell, chair of the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm, said he too is concerned about the project.

"If we could get this to go all underground it might be more expensive, but it would solve all these problems . . . it wouldn't infringe on our park," said Mitchell.

Morum said they have to join two points on the map together for this new line, so at Thursday's meeting, he plans to put the maps up for the public to view and get their feedback.

"We identified way back then that we had to plan for the future, and now the future is here," said Morum.

"We'd like to hear from a lot of people about the project, not just the people concerned about the land. There's a lot of people this might affect."

The transmission line project also involves construction of a new substation in the Shearwater area, due to be completed in 2012.

The line is expected to increase the volume of supply and reliability of service for more than 25,000 Nova Scotia Power customers.

An open house public meeting was scheduled for Thursday, May 20, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Westphal Room at Cole Harbour Place. People are also encouraged to visit Nova Scotia Power's website for information or to email questions (www.nspower.ca/CHEP).

lmckay@fxnews.ca