Neighbors peeved by project Posted On: Monday, Jun. 22 2009 12:33 AM By Jade Ortego
Killeen Daily Herald

OAKALLA – About 400 landowners from Bell, Burnet, Coryell and Lampasas Counties showed up for a meeting Saturday night hoping to protect their land from an Oncor Electric Delivery Company transmission line project planned in their areas.

Oncor's project, dubbed the Newton-Killeen 345 kV Transmission Line, would require clear-cutting an approximately 20-mile long, 160-foot-wide trail to accommodate towers that would transport wind energy through Central Texas. The towers would range from 120-150 feet tall, or the size of a 10- to 12-story building.

Members of Save The Lampasas, Inc. organized Saturday's meeting at the Oakalla Volunteer Fire Department. The non-profit group was established three weeks ago when Oncor sent out letters to people owning land over which one or more of the proposed routes for the lines cross. Two proposed routes run north or south along the Lampasas River, as close as one-fourth of a mile from the bank.

"This would be an ecological disaster. It would damage hunting and fishing in the area and seriously impact the livelihood of a lot of the landowners," said Lynn Eyberg, the group's president. She and her husband, Doug, have had a ranch in Oakalla for 30 years, and one of the proposed routes goes within 500 feet of the river on her property.

Oncor has had two public forums to explain the routes and confirmed the existence of endangered, threatened and monitored species in the potentially affected areas. A representative from Oncor could not be reached for comment Sunday.

The Lampasas River Valley and the hundreds of rural acres surrounding the river in Lampasas, Burnet and Bell counties are home to two endangered species, the golden-cheeked warbler and black-capped vireo; a threatened species, nesting bald eagles; and a monitored species, the Guadalupe bass.

The Guadalupe bass is monitored because it has been breeding with a similar species, the smallmouth bass. It rarely exists in pure strains, and it is the state fish of Texas.

"They have a population of native fish there. You could create run-off, change the character of the river, and lose this pure genetic strain. If you pollute the river and kill them all off, you've lost them forever and that's not a good thing," said Bill Balboa, an ecologist and fisheries biologist in Galveston Bay.

Eyberg also fears that clear cutting could degrade fragile caliche topsoil and leave the area dry and rocky.

"Roots bind sediment in place. When you remove vegetation and rain comes, the sediment moves, and where it goes is a matter of gravity," Balboa said. "You'll have erosion and it will scour the topsoil off."

Many residents said they'd support building a route that goes from a switching station in Killeen, moves west and skirts the southern border of Fort Hood, and connects with an existing line around Parrie Haynes Ranch.

"[That route] already has tower easement there, around the southern half there's not a lot of households," said John Fisher, Bell County Precinct 4 Commissioner. "'Not in our backyard' is not a good reason, but we're trying to help Oncor found a more suitable route that would affect less people."

Eyberg said that, though she supports the Killeen route, it is not the job of Save The Lampasas, Inc., to choose a route. "That's a position for Oncor," she said. "Nobody wants these power lines on their property. Our position is just get it out of the river valley."

At the meeting, Doug Eyberg, an energy transactions lawyer and member of Save the Lampasas, Inc., instructed the concerned residents to send letters to Gov. Rick Perry and Oncor asking to have their property protected.

"We have to beat the tom-toms. They have to know that you're going to be something to deal with. Make a lot of noise," he said.

Bradley Ware, a landowner with a bald eagles and golden-cheeked warblers on his property, which has been in his family for more than a century, wonders why Oncor would consider that area at all.

"Why would they come to an area that's so highly productive and sensitive and everybody enjoys?" he said. "It's really important to get out [and petition]. A group can do so much more than just one and we all felt like just one when we got that letter."

Contact Jade Ortego at jortego@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7553.