LETTER: Native mounds, endangered insects in path of power lines

To Ozaukee Press:

I recently filed my testimony with the Public Service Commission opposing American Transmission Company’s proposed “greenfield” routing for its Ozaukee County transmission line project. These are the new transmission lines that would take massive amounts of power to the hyperscale AI data center being built in Port Washington by Vantage Data Centers for Oracle. I want Ozaukee County residents to understand what’s actually at stake here.

ATC’s preferred routing would cut new, permanent transmission corridors through some of the most significant natural and cultural heritage landscape our region has to offer. This includes an ancient Native American effigy mound landscape along the Milwaukee River that the Wisconsin DNR itself calls the center of effigy mound culture in the entire state — mounds ATC’s application failed even to identify. It includes irreplaceable natural areas like the Kinnamon Conifer Swamp and the Milwaukee River Mesic Woods, Hawthorne Hills County Park and its Shady Lane Natural Area and critical habitat for the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee and the Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly, both federally endangered species found right here in our backyard.

It includes the historic viewsheds of places like the National Register-listed Stony Hill School in Waubeka, birthplace of Flag Day, the Ozaukee County Pioneer Village and my own property, Kelton House Farm. And I recently learned that ATC’s recent FAA filings raise the real possibility that these enormous towers will require night-time aviation obstruction lighting — meaning the harm to our rural night sky and quiet countryside wouldn’t end when the sun goes down. What is next?

A viable, far less damaging alternative exists: the south alternative route, which largely follows existing transmission corridors rather than carving through new pristine farmland, wetlands,and historic sites. This alternative already has real momentum. It’s backed by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, by historic preservation organizations at both the state and national levels, by neighboring local governments including Port Washington — and, tellingly, even by Vantage, the very company this project exists to serve.

ATC has never adequately explained why it continues to recommend routes that cause this much harm when a better option is sitting right in front of the PSC. 

I hope my neighbors will make their voices heard too. And I hope that the PSC will make the right choice and protect our precious region from this senseless destruction.

Joseph P. Gromacki

Town of Fredonia