Assessment a win for data center power line foes

By KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM

Ozaukee Press staff

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is recommending that the so-called south alternative route for new transmission lines intended to provide power to the Vantage Data Center Lighthouse Campus in Port Washington, a route that largely follows existing electrical lines, be chosen by the Public Service Commission.

That route has less of an impact on prime farmland and less overall impact on agricultural conservation programming, according to an agricultural impact statement released by DATCP last month.

The recommendation is the one preferred by many communities in the area and by Vantage, which is developing the data center.

“That’s great,” Patti Plough of the Responsible Energy Alliance, a coalition of Saukville, Trenton, Fredonia and Farmington residents fighting to keep the power lines out of their communities, said Tuesday.

“That’s what we’ve all been fighting for, that they would choose the existing corridors. This is helpful.”

Kirsten Biefeld, manager of DATCP’s Agricultural Impact Statement Program, said Tuesday the statement is just one of the things the PSC will use to determine which route American Transmission Co. will follow as it extends power to the data center.

“It’s definitely something they (the PSC) take into consideration,” she said, adding her department will testify when the PSC holds hearings on ATC’s power line application.

The statement, Biefeld added, is limited to the impact of the power line extension on farmers and agricultural lands.

Other environmental issues will be addressed in an environmental impact statement she said is being prepared by the PSC.

That statement, Biefeld said, is expected to be released soon.

According to the agricultural impact statement, the alternative route would impact 1,018 acres of agricultural land compared to 1,207 acres if the route preferred by ATC is selected by the PSC.

The statement was compiled using information from ATC’s application for the power lines as well as landowner surveys, that’s then analyzed by the department, she said.

Among the concerns landowners reported were erosion control issues, the impact on agritourism, impact on homes or farm structures, impairment of erosion mitigation practices, the loss of managed forest, and stray voltage and the impact on dairy cows.

The potential loss of property value, the reduction of land in conservation programs and the impact on wildlife habitat and archaeological sites are among other concerns listed.

Plough said Responsible Energy Alliance is continuing to prepare to argue its case before the PSC and to urge area residents to submit comments on the power line issue to the PSC by its Aug. 28 deadline.

Intervenors in the case need to turn in evidence to bolster their cases to the PSC by July 17, Plough said, including information on the impact on property, lives, businesses and other things.

The PSC will hold public hearings from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, at Fredonia Village Hall and from 2 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19, at the Kiel Community Center.

People may attend in person or via Zoom at https://us02web.soom.us/my/pschearings.

People who have registered as intervenors will be part of a public hearing session that begins at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 25, in the PSC hearing room in Madison.

That session may be viewed on YouTube at https://youtube.com/@PSCWI-Hearings.

Written comments may be submitted to the PSC by mailing them to Docket 137-CE-221 Comments, Public Service Commission, P.O. Box 7854, Madison 53707-7854 or online at https://tinyurl.com/3vxeu2w9.