Opinion: Fighting To Protect Fairfield From UI's Monopole Project

The following opinion editorial was written by state Sen. Tony Hwang (R-28), who represents all or parts of Fairfield, Bethel, Easton and Newtown:

Over the past few months, the Fairfield community has been involved in a tumultuous process with United Illuminating (UI) and the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) over UI's plans to build massive monopoles through the heart of Fairfield. On February 16th, the Siting Council approved a double-circuit overhead route to the north side of the railroad tracks in Fairfield with little input and involvement from the community in the decision.

This plan would involve building more than 100 monopoles across seven miles, ranging between 9 ½ to 19 ½ stories tall, forever altering life in Fairfield and impacting our town's character, environment, and charm forever. The clear-cutting of vegetation and trees that will be required for the monopoles' construction will have severe environmental impacts. The presence of these giant, unsightly monopoles will mar our town's beautiful natural landscape. During the Siting Council's determination process, they never required UI to provide an alternative solution where power lines would be buried instead of raised onto large monopoles. UI was not required to provide any data to defend claims that burying the lines would not be fiscally plausible.

The siting council is tasked with providing environmental standards for the location, design, construction, and operation of public utility facilities to assure the welfare and protection of the people of Connecticut. However, in the Fairfield case, concerned residents faced barriers to receiving important information about the project in a timely manner. Residents' testimony before the council was limited, and not given equal weight to the utility's. The town of Fairfield has filed a challenge in Superior Court contesting the Siting Council's decision.

My colleagues and I are currently fighting for legislation to amend the Siting Council's decision process to bring the voice of the community impacted by a project to the forefront. Here are the bills that I proposed and supported to bring accountability and transparency to the siting council's decisions:

• House Bill 5453 would require the council to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of a proposed project, and would require notice of the project to be given to affected property owners.
• Senate Bill 198 would require the council to include a member from an impacted community as a nonvoting member in its decision on a project.
• House Bill 5507 is a comprehensive bill with multiple provisions. Some highlights include subjecting certain transmission lines to the state's environmental justice law, requires utility applicants to provide additional information to the siting council regarding information on property appraisals, electric load, and system performance, and allows local intervenors in council proceedings to appeal a decision to Superior Court.

I will continue to fight to protect our community, and communities statewide by ensuring that the CSC's decisions are transparent, inclusive of locally impacted voices, and accurately reflect all information necessary to make a fair decision. Please feel free to contact my office with any questions, concerns, or ideas related to this issue at Tony.Hwang@cga.ct.gov , or by phone at 860-240-8800.