On Thursday, the Site Evaluation Committee meets to hear public input on Northern Pass and the impact of the project as it weaves through Concord. I write today to implore you to raise your voice and join the council in community unison to bury the lines.
For a bit of background, the city of Concord held several forums back in 2015 to gauge the effect and gather input from our residents, with specific focus on the properties that reside in the shadows cast by the wires and towers of Northern Pass. Examining the entire 8.1-mile stretch, the committee heard resident outcry at the proposed towers expected to be wedged between the existing lines that snake their way through Concord from Canterbury to Pembroke. Now, with some towers being proposed to top 165 feet, we must equally elevate our outrage.
Accordingly, the city council rightly directed the city solicitor’s office to act as an intervener against Northern Pass with an emphasis on the need to bury the lines through Concord. It seems a convenient coincidence that with each intervention the city of Concord presents, the towers increase another 15 feet in stature. At first, the maximum height of the towers would hover around 120 feet, then 135 feet, then 150 feet and now a staggering 165 feet.
Beyond the mounting scale of the poles, there is a multitude of reasons to support this position to bury the lines through Concord. Among these:
Northern Pass and Hydro-Quebec are offering a $200 million Forward NH Fund that they promote as support for economic development programs, clean energy innovations, and programs to grow jobs and support tourism. Think about this: If our economic development efforts and tourism in New Hampshire were not at risk of adverse impact, why offer this money? Hydro-Quebec and Eversource know this project will harm New Hampshire.
At a cost of $40 million, the lines could be buried through Concord without risking our community’s economic development efforts, without loss of property values of the adjacent lands. Real clean energy programs that actually benefit Concord residents could flourish, and we will preserve from destruction our conservation lands around Turtle Pond, Broken Ground Conservation Area and the Oak Hill Trails.
The highest density area on the entire proposed route is Concord. In fact, more than one-third of the residents of New Hampshire subjected to Northern Pass’s conduit live in Concord.
Northern Pass continues to promote that the energy generated by Hydro-Quebec will benefit New England’s power grid and has purposely remained hush about the reality that only customers of Eversource benefit from the energy.
Hydroelectric power is not the “green” energy being promoted by Northern Pass. From Concord’s Conservation Committee: “Large-scale hydroelectric generation is not considered sustainable or ‘green’ energy; it relies on the inundation of thousands of acres of boreal forest in Quebec – by some estimates an area half the size of New Hampshire – and construction of hundreds of miles of transmission lines from distant hydro dams. Such projects contribute to climate change through the release of methane gas from decomposing vegetation.”
The lack of transparency on Northern Pass is simply not the New Hampshire way. If a public utility, a power company, really supported the communities of New Hampshire, why would it leave us in the dark? Vital information is being hidden – shielded from public view and scrutiny.
Apart from a sympathetic Site Evaluation Committee, Concord is on the verge of being consumed by Northern Pass, so please add your voice. The Site Evaluation Committee meets this Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon at 49 Donovan Street in Concord.
Organizations in opposition of Northern Pass are requesting supporters dress in orange T-shirts to visually show your opposition. Lastly, send an email to the Site Evaluation Committee. The recipient is Pamela Monroe, and her email address is pamela.monroe@sec.nh.gov. Copy this. Paste this. Share this. But most importantly, act.
Concord needs your voice so together we can echo our disdain for the overhead power lines and raise our collective voice – bury the power lines through the 8-mile stretch of our community.
(Jennifer Kretovic is Concord city councilor for
Ward 3.)