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Backgroun Info on the Arrowhead-Weston
Its already rusted, unpainted poles reach to 140 feet up in the air. Some are placed not more than 20 feet from the living room windows of farmhouses. And in between them is strung a massive 345,000-volt power line which emits a loud buzzing sound, scrambles TV reception, causes baby monitors to malfunction, and many fear, cancer causing radiation.
This is the Arrowhead-Weston power line, a massive bulk transmission line being built by the American Transmission Company (ATC).
ATC is a for profit corporation that has founded for the sole purpose to build this line, and make as much money as possible from it. Towards that end it has bribed dozens of local and state government boards, used eminent domain to seize the land of over 850 farmers and other landowners, and has spent literally millions in advertising and pressure campaigns to blackmail local residents who have the audacity to question why they should sacrifice their land, quality of life, health and local environment for a for-profit line that won't benefit them in the least.
It all began more than 5 years ago when ATC came into existence and announced the plans for the Arrowhead-Weston line. Following the construction of a series of massive hydroelectric dams in Manitoba, which reversed the flow of several rivers there and in the process, totally destroyed the livelihood and social fabric of the Cree who lived there, the corporations involved decided that they needed a market for their newly generated cheap electricity. They looked south, and saw that they could make a killing by underselling existing electricity producers in the Chicagoland area. All they needed was a massive bulk transmission line and the profits would be theirs.
The Arrowhead-Weston, if built (a small leg of the line has already been built in Midway Township in Minnesota, but no construction has begun yet in Wisconsin), will be a massive 345 Kilovolt bulk transmission line that will allow ATC to sell that cheap electricity from the Manitoba Hydro project in Canada to the Chicago area.
It's a project that from the very beginning has raised alarm bells from a whole host of activists, farmers, environmentalists, local people who would be along the route, and others.
In addition to the issue of the undefendable destruction Manitoba Hydro has inflicted on the Cree, if this line is built it would disrupt hundreds of farms (an estimated 850 would be affected), pose a serious health and safety risk given the magnetic field such a massive amount of electricity generates, the risk of "arcing" (farmers have been warned they'll need to drag a chain behind their tractors to avoid being electrocuted, and can't even raise a shovel or hoe above their heads near the line), and the possibility of the electricity corroding a buried gas pipeline that runs along part of the route. And then there's the environmental and ascetic aspects of building hundreds of massive 13 story, 140 foot rusted metal poles across hundreds of miles of fields, forests and wetlands.
Such things are matters of grave concern for the folks who will be affected by this line, but naturally are either denied or poo-poohed by the consortium of utility companies that make up the American Transmission Company. For them the only major area of concern is how much money they'll make, and how soon they can start making it.
Faced with having to do battle with this corporate leviathon, opponents of the Arrowhead-Weston came together in a group called Save Our Unique Lands, and for five years have fought an uphill battle as local government and state agencies, one after the other, caved in to the traveling snake oil salesmen of ATC.
Unfortunately, this fight has powerfully and painfully demonstrated the power and ability of big corporations to steam roll over working people and local governments. The most telling recent example of this is the passage of the Montgomery Bill. In the wake of a vote by the Douglas County Board to not allow the line to cross county land ATC went to Madison and got a new state law passed that takes away local government's right to say no to the use of their land by private companies!
Despite the setback represented by the passage of the Montgomery Bill, forcing counties to negotiate with ATC, SOUL remains determined to continue the fight against the Arrowhead-Weston line, and for alternative energy. We invite you to join us in this important struggle, and help keep northern Wisconsin clean, safe, beautiful and run in the interests of the working people who live here!
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