Power Struggle Plays Out On YouTube

By YVETTE C. HAMMETT The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 10, 2008

SEFFNER - A resident opposed to a gigantic power line corridor looming over her rural neighborhood has taken her fight to YouTube.

And Tampa Electric Co., which plans to construct a 230,000-volt power line corridor between Mulberry and Temple Terrace, has responded with a YouTube video.

YouTube is a Web site that allows users to post video clips.

Joy Ingram, whose home lies within walking distance of the proposed corridor, calls her video "Power at Any Cost?"

She acknowledged TECO must build more power lines to support growth. But her video asserts the environmental cost of the proposed corridor would be too great if the utility gets permission from Gov. Charlie Crist and a siting committee.

The TECO video, called "Power Line Considerations," focuses on the rationale used to choose the proposed route.

In Ingram's video, she talks about the oak hammock near her home and a nest that families of bald eagles have used for some 40 years.

"It's just a way to show, visually, how absurd their plan is when you look at the alternative routes," Ingram said. She also hopes the video makes more people aware of the proposal and persuades them to express their opposition in e-mail to Crist.

"If you look at the alternate routes, then look at what they chose, it's obviously all about the money," Ingram said, meaning TECO chose a route with land it owns. She said she doubts the utility chose the corridor because it had the least effect on the environment. Other proposed routes would run through more developed areas.

The proposed 30-mile transmission line would have power poles up to 125 feet tall and run from State Road 60 in Mulberry west to Dover Road, then zigzag north and west toward Temple Terrace.

TECO spokesman Rick Morera said the company-produced video posted on YouTube on April 23, two days after Ingram posted hers, wasn't a response to her piece. He acknowledged, however, it was an opportunity to correct what he called misinformation.

"She says something about us clear-cutting a 600-foot swath, and that simply isn't true," Morera said.

He said the company wanted to explain the criteria used for determining a route. Those include disturbance to homes, environmental sensitivity and cost, Dave Lukcic, TECO's manager of environmental projects, says in the video.

The TECO clip can be viewed by going to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwcL8rstmoc.

Morera said resident input expressed in survey responses was used in determining the route. He said the most critical issues for many who answered the survey was how many homes, schools and parcels of land would be disturbed by the power lines.

"When we looked at all the criteria, the criteria that were the most critical were the number of homes, schools and parcels of land impacted," Morera said.

TECO's corridor of choice affects the fewest number of homes and schools, compared with other routes the company considered, he said.

"Not that environment isn't important, because it is," Morera said. "But, environmental considerations were fairly low" in importance in the survey responses.

Morera said 150 people responded to the survey TECO mailed to people living within 500 feet of the corridor's center.

"One thing that is most bothersome to us," Morera said, "is people saying we didn't do enough community outreach. We sent out thousands of letters and held meetings with the public."

Plans for the high-voltage power corridor have been in the works for years. The utility began buying property for it in the 1980s.

TECO and those living along the proposed route are awaiting a recommendation from a state-appointed administrative hearing judge. His recommendation will go to Crist and the siting committee, which is expected to make a final ruling this summer.

WATCH THE VIDEOS

A Seffner woman and TECO have different views of the company's powerline project in the county.

• Joy Ingram's video clip can be viewed by going to http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_DtBDZDwG4g.

• TECO's clip can be viewed by going to www.youtube .com/watch?v=WwcL8rstmoc.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or yhammett@tampatrib.com.