St. Albert Wants Province To Bury Power Line

22/10/2008 00:53
Environmentalists wanted bird-killing line moved away from Big Lake

EDMONTON - St. Albert city council has likely ended an initiative to move a waterfowl-killing transmission line near Big Lake, says a local activist.

AltaLink and the provincial government had agreed to work with the city and contribute money to the project. But St. Albert councillors voted 5-2 Monday to ask the province to bury the whole power line instead of simply relocating it.

That pushes the estimated project cost from $900,000 to $8 million. And the city would like the province to pay for all of it, because it will be Crown land, said Coun. James Burrows.


"I'm slightly peeved to say the least," said Elke Blodgett, a St. Albert environmentalist who has argued long and hard to have the line moved. "This will get rejected by the province."

Blodgett said many city councillors have never wanted to pay a cent to have the line moved and this is their way of ending the initiative.

Burrows disagreed.

"I think she should try to be a little more optimistic," he said, about their funding request to the province. "We won't know unless we ask them."

Mayor Nolan Crouse said council decided not to fund the move of the power line because they didn't want the environmental and financial risks associated with such a project. They also didn't want an above-ground move that would take it closer to the sports parks.

Full details in the Edmonton Journal.

SINC SAYS:

Don’t readers find it odd that St. Albert council can subsidize $ervu$ Place to the tune of millions in any given year to give service to the barely 51% who wanted that monster built? Yet when asked to participate in a plan to save wildlife who have been placed in danger by our own bad road, a paltry $350,000.00 is more than they can swallow. Are our priorities in St. Albert screwed up? You be the judge. Did we learn nothing from the embarrassment of the naming of the hockey arena fiasco?

READER RESPONSE:

Don,

In response to Councillor Burrow's comments in the Edmonton Journal article re Elke Blodgett:

"I think she should try to be a little more optimistic",

let me just say that if she were not so optimistic, she would have given up on St. Albert city council a long time ago.


No Name Please
St. Albert