SCC Gives Loudoun County Schools New Deadline To Decide On Power Lines Easement

ASHBURN, VA – The state body that regulates utilities has given the Loudoun County School Board until July 2 to approve a proposed route for Dominion Energy's controversial Golden to Mars powerlines project, or an alternate route will get final approval.

Virginia’s State Corporation Commission also noted in its order on Tuesday imposing the deadline that a previous order on the route now being challenged by a homeowners group due to changes in state law was not a final order and therefore not subject to such a challenge. The implication would be that only a final order on the route is subject to petition for reconsideration.

In the meantime, the Loudoun County School Board can approve Route 4 for the proposed powerlines or decline and accept the alternate Route 3a.

Route 4, the SCC’s preferred candidate, is tied for the shortest of all proposed routes at 8.3 miles long. It is projected to be the least expensive route, can be more than 50 percent run along existing powerline routes, and does not come within 100 feet of any homes, according to the SCC. However, it would run along the edges of Rock Ridge High School and Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School, and the county school board is not required to grant Dominion Energy the easement it would need to access their property.

Route 3a is slightly longer than Route 4 but is designed to avoid any land requiring an easement from the county school board. However, the SCC says, that route will be more impactful to homes, as less of it can be collocated with existing powerlines, more of it will run near community residences, and, despite not requiring a school board easement, more of that route will be closer to areas that school children actually use. County supervisors have opposed this route.

Many opponents of the project object to any new overhead powerlines and have been advocating for the new lines to be run underground. The SCC’s April 9 order concluded that an underground route for the lines would not be feasible. A Loudoun County homeowners' group has challenged that conclusion in light of a new state bill authorizing the SCC to greenlight four pilot projects to build power lines underground.

The SCC’s Tuesday order imposing the deadline says its April 9 order is not subject to that type of challenge, as it was not a final order.