MERRILL LYNCH
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FIGHTING page 16
OF MICHIGAN
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F41 .
m
Th e
Amedc an
Legion
says.
Still another nearby resident is
bothered by the possible ground-
water contamination that could
be caused by the proposed sub-
station. Attorney Tali Wendrow
and her neighbors on Wimbley
Lane are served by wells.
"This isn't a not-in-my-back-
yard kind of thing. Most of the
time these things are built in in-
dustrial areas. This is in the mid-
dle of a residential area," Ms.
Wendrow says.
After meeting with the West
Bloomfield Township Planning
Commission, the Wetlands Re-
view Board and a group of con-
cerned residents last August,
Edison decided to review and re-
search nine alternate sites for the
substation.
"At this time, we do not plan on
building the substation at its cur-
rent site if we can find another
site," says regional manager Car-
la Gribbs.
The amount of wetlands that
would be affected at the original
site, however, would be much less
than at others, she notes. And the
substation would be tied into ad-
jacent 120,000-volt power lines
that run alongside the COE rail-
road tracks that bisect West
Bloomfield, making it an ideal lo-
cation.
Edison called a meeting for last
Wednesday at the Maple-Drake
Jewish Community Center to talk
to residents about their concerns,
but Ms. Swimmer felt it was a
cynical strategy to head off
protests at a session scheduled for
Tuesday, Oct. 8. Beginning at 7
p.m., residents will meet with the
township's planning commission,
wetlands review board and Edi-
son officials at the township hall
on Walnut Lake Road. No vote is
scheduled.
Ms. Swimmer, a nursing stu-
dent, is angered at what she char-
acterizes as the back-door
approach Edison took to getting
township approval.
She says the utility notified
only seven people who live with-
in 300 feet of the proposed sub-
station of the August meeting.
"The school had no idea, none
of the neighborhoods knew. I lit-
erally went door to door talking to
people," she says.
Since then, she and a commit-
tee of eight or nine residents of
Shenandoah, Woodland Ridge
subdivision and Wimbley Lane
have kicked off a letter-writing
campaign to the area's state rep-
resentatives.
"We will get signatures from
everyone who will sign and then
bombard lawmakers with them,"
Ms. Swimmer says.'
When she and her husband
Joel moved to West Bloomfield
from Oak Park seven years ago,
they were assured that the land
behind them was a protected wet-
lands.
And while the power lines were
already there, she says, "we were
stupid. We were young. We nev-
er looked into it. We were so in
awe of the beauty of the wet-
lands."
Detroit Edison bought the prop-
erty, which is east of Halsted and
north of Walnut Lake Road, 23
years ago. Since then, the area has
grown to 40,000 residences and
businesses in West Bloomfield,
Orchard Lake, Sylvan Lake and
Keego Harbor.
"There's a problem with volt-
age, and it will continue to be an
issue," she says. "I believe in the
past 20 years, the population has
grown 70 percent and that places
more demands on our electric fa-
cilities, and we're responsible for
providing good power quality and
good reliable power.
"One way to do that is add sub-
stations closer to the residences
they're going to serve."
Edison already received a wet-
lands permit from the state's De-
partment of Environmental
Quality to clear the site, but must
also obtain a township permit.
Should Edison locate the sub-
station at another site, it would
be required to go through the state
permit process again.
Ms. Gribbs says Edison oper-
ates 800 stations and substations
in southeast Michigan, almost
half of them in residential areas.
The nearest station to the pro-
posed substation is on Haggerty
Road, about a mile away.
"Ultimately, you try to make
sure a substation is within a mile
of the first customer it serves," Ms.
Gribbs says.
Whether or not power stations
generate dangerous electromag-
netic fields is a question the com-
pany does not address.
"There is information on both
sides of the spectrum. There are
studies that say there is absolutely
no link to health problems and
studies that say there are. We are
in the middle. We aren't here to
take a position on whether there
are health risks but to operate safe
systems," Ms. Gribbs says.
However, she explains, there
will be no increase in emfs outside
of the property line if the substa- -
lion is built at the site, and there
would be a 25 percent reduction
in emfs generated by the power
lines.
Aside from abiding by nation-
al and state safety codes, Edison
would erect a 6-foot fence with
barbed wire around the site and
safety signs, Ms. Gribbs says.
Edison planned to complete the
substation construction by the end
of 1997, but has postponed plans
because of residents' concerns.
"And with the assumption well
go to another site, additional work
will have to be done on the design
and we'll have to go through all
the permitting processes. That
will take six months to a year, or
longer," Ms. Gribbs says. 'We are
really committed to hearing what
local residents have to say and
working out a workable site." ❑