Plans for new Derry-Ligonier power line spark property owner concerns over potential impacts
An idyllic Ligonier Township homestead where a young couple are living the life bucolic by raising exotic fowl and keeping honeybees could be bisected by a high voltage power line proposed by FirstEnergy.
The proposed power line “would slice directly through the center” of the eight-acre property on Orme Road that Rosslyn and Dave Kemerer have dubbed Our Nook of the Woods.
FirstEnergy is considering four routes for stringing a new electric power transmission line between Derry and Ligonier to protect against outages.
As a Feb. 7 public meeting on the project nears, some Ligonier Township property owners like the Kemerers are concerned about potential harm to the ecological value of their land.
The southernmost of the four routes proposed by FirstEnergy subsidiary Keystone Appalachian Transmission Co. would pass just to the north of the Route 30 corridor, traversing Our Nook of the Woods. It would ruin their rural lifestyle and set back their efforts to preserve the land and engage in animal husbandry, Rosslyn Kemerer said.
In online project documents, the utility company indicates it will generally require a 100-foot-wide easement for the new line, which would be supported primarily by steel poles and would extend over 8 to 10 miles, depending on the final route chosen.
Environmental concern
In addition to restoring a 1930s cabin, Kemerer said, she and her husband breed rabbits, raise uncommon varieties of ducks and chickens and keep beehives. She has voiced concerns about the utility project’s potential physical disruption of her family’s property, ill effects on the animals and the “buzzing” noise of high-voltage power lines.
She said electromagnetic fields of the type associated with power lines can interfere with honeybee behavior and contribute to stress on hives, as suggested in a 2019 study.
“We have gone to great lengths to protect wildlife habitats, plant native species, limit our environmental impact and establish a thriving ecosystem,” she said in a letter protesting the proposed power line route. “Steel pole structures and high frequency electricity pose a huge threat to that delicate balance as well as our livelihood as a small homestead.”
Susan Huba, executive director of the Loyalhanna Watershed Association, relayed her own concerns about the southern line route in a letter to FirstEnergy.
Of the four routes, she said, it would be “the most detrimental to the scenic green space preservation within the Loyalhanna Gorge and Route 30 Greenway Corridor Conservation Areas that our organization, as well as our partners from Westmoreland County and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, have worked hard to protect over the past several decades.”
Huba pointed out that line route could affect a fenced area of the Watershed Farm where cattle graze under a state agricultural conservation easement program. She said it appears the route also would cross a 50-acre property bordering Coal Pit Run and an area near the intersection of routes 30 and 259, both of which are subject to conservation easements held by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
Huba and Kemerer both acknowledged the benefits of increasing the reliability of electrical service for area residents. They suggested FirstEnergy should consider an alternate route running farther north.
A project map indicates two of those routes would parallel an existing power line much of the way between the Ethel Springs power substation in Derry and the Bethlen substation at Ligonier.
Multiple options
FirstEnergy spokesman Will Boye said the utility has to consider all viable options for the proposed power line and has yet to identify a preferred route.
“The proposed line routes were designed to minimize impacts to environmentally sensitive areas, property owners and communities as much as possible,” Boye said. “The information gathered from public outreach and the public meeting will help determine the preferred route.”
He said the new line is meant to enhance service reliability for about 6,000 Derry Township customers served by the Ethel Springs substation and 5,100 in the Ligonier area served by the Bethlen substation.
Because each substation is powered through a single transmission source, he said, those customers will lose electricity if a fault occurs on the respective line. He said the new line will provide a backup power feed for the substations.
FirstEnergy identified the need for a new line last year and presented its plan to regional power grid operator PJM, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in Pennsylvania and 12 other states.
According to a proposed project schedule posted online, the utility anticipates selecting a preferred route in March and applying to the state Public Utility Commission for approval in the second quarter of 2025.
“We will perform detailed wetland, stream and other environmental and cultural resource evaluations along the preferred transmission line route,” Boye said. “We will also secure necessary permits from state and federal agencies before construction.”
Construction on the line could occur between the fourth quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2028.
Jeff Himler is a TribLive reporter covering Greater Latrobe, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant Area and Derry Area school districts and their communities. He also reports on transportation issues. A journalist for more than three decades, he enjoys delving into local history. He can be reached at jhimler@triblive.com.
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