ABOUT 50 people attended an occasionally heated and passionate meeting on Tuesday night about the controversial Country Energy upgrade and problems with its easement that centres on a development south of Bega.
Conducted by independent consultant Bruce Walsh, among those in attendance as observers were Gail Hayson, representing Member for Bega Andrew Constance, Andrew Woodley, Bega Valley Shire Council’s group manager planning and environment, and councillor Keith Hughes.
Country Energy re-gional general manager Phillip Green stressed the company was still looking at the proposal.
“I will say that our preferred route is through the easement but we do acknowledge the need to consult with the community,” he said.
Mr Green said there were variables in the project such as moving from a twin pole structure to a single pole and reconfiguring the lines to reduce the Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF), narrowing the easement and undergrounding the section near Max Slater Drive.
“We are looking at ways to adjust the boundaries of the easement so we are confident all the buildings are well and truly outside,” he said.
“And if there is any remaining inside we will give a letter to the owners from Country Energy saying we are happy for them to be there.”
Mr Green said there were significant issues associated with putting the lines underground.
“There will be significant cost increases and every customer and consumer will bear the cost,” he said.
“But we need to take it all into consideration.”
Paul Flanagan, an expert on EMFs from a company called Aurecon, explained how EMFs worked.
He told the meeting there had been many studies done but “although we’ve learned a lot we still can’t say that we know the full story”.
Mr Flanagan said he had measured the EMFs around the development based on the worst possible case and found they were well within the allowable range, so “in fact they would be a lot lower”.
Mr Flanagan said that adverse health effects from EMFs had not been established, but had not been ruled out.
He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had research that in a health risk assessment, on balance “the evidence in relation to childhood leukaemia is not strong enough to be considered causal but is sufficiently strong to remain a concern”.
Questions from those in attendance included whether council had known about the upgrade when it had given permission for the development, time frames, construction of the poles and design of the project, dangers of EMFs and deteriorating valuations of houses.
One speaker said the area was known as “radiation valley” and they wanted fewer problems not more, which was what would happen if the lines went from eight to 16 as was proposed.
Dennis Stanley, manager transmission lines projects, said that when the design was complete it would be shown to all residents for approval.
“Until we get that sign off from them we won’t be progressing.”
Elaine Cole asked if any of the presenters or representatives from Country Energy would buy a property in similar surroundings, with the answer being they would.
After the meeting Ms Cole said she was only “reasonably happy” with the meeting.
“Nothing really came out of it and didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know,” she said.
“I’m still concerned about EMFs but more concerned with the way my property has been devalued because of this.”
Another resident, Jenelle Loftus, said she was also “reasonably happy with the outcome but I’m still worried about the future”.
“There is still no evidence about the long-term effect of low EMFS on humans,” she said.
Mr Green said he was very pleased with the attendance.
“This meeting was not about answers, it was about bringing people together to explain some of the more complicated aspects of the project, explain the reason for the upgrade and give people the opportunity to provide feedback before we commenced the design,” he said.
“We want to minimise the effect as much as we can and work with residents to get the best outcome.
“Our challenge now is to address the needs of the residents as best we can while meeting the needs of the wider community.”
Mr Green said the project was essential to secure the electricity supply to the South Coast while also allowing for regional development and potentially the connection of renewable energy to the grid.
“We will keep on working with the residents until we can come to some resolution,” he said.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter