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Dear Editor:
In response to Pat Reilly's opinion in last week's paper, I was very disappointed that he devalued the Iowa County Board's decision to join the appeal of the Public Service commissioners' ruling on the Cardinal Hickory Creek ATC high voltage wire towers. Picture these towers lining the highway through Dodgeville, coming from Middleton and continuing to Montfort, then turning South through Lancaster, Cassville, and across the Mississippi River through a wildlife preserve and through the entire Driftless Area.
The $50,000 amount approved by the Iowa County Board (14 to 2) for the appeal is a very small percentage (.032%) of the $157,300,000 budget for 2020. According to the Iowa County Board's mission statement "to protect and promote the health and safety, economic well being, and environmental quality of our County by providing essential services in a fiscally responsible manner. " [From the October 19th Board meeting agenda outline. ]
The need for the appeal meets all of those specifications.
You have already heard about the electrical leakage from the wires as health hazards, the probable affects on tourism and growth of our community, and the environmental impact on the entire area and our way of life.
I believe that many Iowa County residents care but don't dare to speak up or feel that there is no chance of stopping the construction of these towers. But there is a chance! The appeal is happening and each and every one of us can speak up by sending our comments to the Environmental Impact Statement to this email address:
comments@CardinalHickcoryCreekEIS.us. (case sensitive)
If you feel that this project will have an impact on the health and safety of our community--- tell them. If you feel that these towers will affect your business endeavors or affect your property values---tell them. If you are concerned about the environmental impact on the wildlife and your way of life----tell them.
Numbers matter. You can make comments until November 25th.The number of comments will have an impact.
To imagine the towers lining Hwy 18/151 to Madison is horrifying to me. Right now many of the wires are underground so that it is basically a scenic route. Once the towers are constructed more will come, making an industrial corridor.
What are the alternatives? We can take a lesson from the California fires. California citizens see the value in underground wires, microgrids for more local energy distributions, and best of all, take the profit out of the energy transmission companies.
Contact Driftless Area Land Conservancy (DALC) at 608-930-3252 for more information.
Jean Luecke
Dodgeville, WI