A letter unanimously approved by Oak Ridge City Council on Monday, Nov. 13, 2017, asks federal officials to postpone a project to remove trees and other vegetation from the top of Pine Ridge, pictured above from South Illinois Avenue in south Oak Ridge, for 161-kilovolt power lines that will provide electricity to a new substation at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The Oak Ridge City Council will discuss the power lines planned on top of Pine Ridge for a new electrical substation at the Y-12 National Security Complex during a special meeting today (Friday, December 8).
Specifically, City Council will review the federal response to a city letter about the planned high-voltage power lines.
The special meeting will start at 1:30 p.m. Friday, December 8, in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom at 200 South Tulane Avenue.
Pine Ridge is between the center of the city and the Y-12 National Security Complex.
The 161-kilovolt power lines will provide electricity to a new substation that will service all of Y-12, but it is being built as a subproject of the Uranium Processing Facility. It would be near UPF on the west side of Y-12.
Among the City Council concerns: They only recently learned of the project, they don’t know what other options were considered, and they are worried about the visual impact of 79-foot transmission towers being located on top of Pine Ridge. Also, Council members said, there has been no public discussion about the project until two weeks before the logging operation was scheduled to start on Thursday, November 16.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
You can see our previous story here.
You can see the agenda for the special meeting, including the NNSA response, here.
Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.
Copyright 2017 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Leave a Reply