Debate continues over the best location for a new power line that would connect to a future nuclear fuel processing facility in west Oak Ridge.

The city's staff, including Oak Ridge Electric Director Ardo Ba, has promoted a plan with the line crossing the North Boundary Greenway, which he has called option 1A, although Ba has also given details about other possible routes. City Council member Ellen Smith has criticized option 1A for environmental reasons and asked about a more direct route heading into the industrial site from a new substation either on land owned by the U.S. Department of Energy or land owned by R&R Properties, which is owned by Mayor Pro Tem Rick Chinn and his family.

Eric Ault, an assistant to the City Manager Mark Watson, said the city has "no preference" yet on routes and will give no further updates until after a work session. The next City Council work session is scheduled for Tuesday, July 19.

In a letter attached to the agenda for that meeting, Watson stated the city was investigating Smith's preferred route.

"DOE has assured us that the property could be acquired quickly under a 100-year lease," he stated. "Feasibility studies, from both an environmental and engineering perspective are now underway. City results should become available within the next thirty days."

Still, however, he stated the plan has setbacks.

"Regardless of the outcome of this new evaluation, meeting the needs of our customer will be difficult due to long delivery times of major equipment. Staff is anxious to enter a design contract so that these items can be ordered well ahead of the need and will be moving forward as quickly as possible in these acquisitions," he stated. The customer he is referring to is future power customer TRISO-X, a nuclear fuel company behind a planned nuclear fuel processing plant. "Time is of the essence in providing this power."

Deputy City Manager Jack Suggs has said TRISO-X would likely need power within two years. TRISO-X President Peter Pappano later said the facility will be operational in 2025.

Smith, when asked why she cared about the issue, cited a desire to prevent the route's effects on the greenway, which she called worthwhile in the long run as a "positive value for the city. 

“It brings people to the community who pay property tax and bring revenue to the city. It’s an investment in the future in that regard,” she said. “We have people saying it’s one of the reasons they move to Oak Ridge.” 

Suggs said at an earlier meeting that he did not know when the city would need to make the decision on the route.

The line, whatever route the city chooses, will provide power for the TRISO-X nuclear fuel facility. The company plans to create a new type of nuclear fuel and employ 400 people. 

"We'd like to think this is the biggest thing to happen to Oak Ridge since the Manhattan Project," Pappano said.

He said he doesn't have a preference for the route through which the power arrives.

"We're more interested in that it's there when we need it," he said.

Smith, even though she has criticized certain routes for electrical lines, has not criticized TRISO-X or its plans.

“We’ve all been excited,” Smith said at a June 6 meeting, regarding the news that TRISO-X chose Oak Ridge as its location for operations. 

A city memo has promoted option 1A as less expensive and less in conflict with the future Oak Ridge Airport and the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement than other possible routes. 

Staff and Council discussed the issue at length at a March 28 City Council meeting. The city has published the video to the agendas page of its website.

At the meeting, Ba said option 1A's route will be along the south side of the greenway, which was previously a gravel patrol road. 

He said the route heads from a substation on Blair Road, crossing a railroad track and Poplar Creek before crossing, following the DOE patrol road that is part of the North Boundary Greenway. It's a part of the trail located farther west and not near the trail’s main entrance.

Ba said the power line will be on the south side of the patrol road and also on the south side of the gas line. It would require an estimated total of 12 acres cleared, he said. The power lines need to be about five feet from the gas lines, unless the city takes certain procedures.

In response to Smith, Ba said it is possible to get the power needed using underground lines on the same route, but city workers aren't equipped to work on high voltage lines underground.

He showed other alternatives, including Smith's proposal and others, but gave reasons why they would not work. Some of the other routes he said are higher in cost, affect a flight zone for a future airport, and in some cases require clearing trees in the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement. 

Regarding Smith’s option, which he called option 5, he said the route would cross Highway 95 to Novus Drive. He described the route from there as nine-10ths of a mile and that 5.5 acres of tree clearing would need to take place.

Even with option 1A, however, he said the substation upgrades might take about $4.1 million without having to build a new substation, although he said that was just an estimate.

He showed a chart with estimated full costs of labor and materials. He said option 1A would cost $7.429 million and option 5 would cost $8.835 million.

Some environmentalists have criticized option 1A near the North Boundary Greenway. Several environmental groups, the Sierra Club Harvey Broome Group, Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, co-sponsored a hike earlier this year to explore parts of Oak Ridge's North Boundary Greenway, the Horizon Center natural area, and the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement. During this hike they discussed some of the impact extending electricity on the route would have on the North Boundary Greenway and on habitats adjacent to it.

One critic, former City Council member Charles Hensley, emailed his concerns to The Oak Ridger.

"This project would destroy the western portion of the unique pristine greenway, destroy the continuity of the forest cover, and significantly impact a wetland area that borders the route," he stated.

Smith has called for the city to consider other routes, including in comments at a June 6 City Council meeting.

She said she saw “a lot of issues” with maintaining a line there in addition to its impact on the greenway. In an email she gave some additional thoughts.

"The forest clearing required for the line would intrude into conservation-protected areas on both sides of the road. This intrusion would disrupt the wildlife habitat connectivity between East Fork Poplar Creek and protected floodplain forests and the BORCE that is one of the main values of the BORCE, and it would destroy the shaded natural setting that has made this gravel road an extraordinarily popular recreational greenway. Construction of the line would be complicated by the physical location, by environmental regulatory restrictions, and by the presence of a high-pressure natural gas line in the same easement corridor as the power line. I don’t think the city’s cost analysis has included these costs. Additionally, the presence of tall trees nearby would become a continuing maintenance headache for the power line, adding to operating costs, unless tree cutting removes a much wider swath of forest than is currently claimed to be necessary," she said.

Smith said there is interest “in the community” in bringing power in from the Highway 95 side of Horizon Center using the existing 161 kilovolt TVA line that goes through the area. She said it could serve the Horizon Center and also any future development along Oak Ridge Turnpike. She also said DOE might make some of its land available for a substation facility. She said she was also interested in the possibility of using other property in the area owned by R&R Properties.

Smith said she wanted more “serious exploration” of that route than what the city staff has already presented.

“It looks to me like it could be a win, win, win for the community in a variety of ways,” she said of her proposed alternative route. She listed its benefits as getting power to the location in the long term, getting power to other areas that might be suitable for development and “protecting the natural assets” of the area along the greenway.

In the email she went more in depth than the above comments made at a City Council meeting.

"It’s a win for quality of life and future economic stability because it prevents the loss of a popular recreational asset that is valued by residents and can continue to attract folks to Oak Ridge in the future. It’s a win for the natural environment because it avoids harm to forest, stream and floodplain habitats with many benefits that include supporting 'watchable wildlife' and reducing global warming. It’s a win for our electricity providers and future industry because it avoids extra installation costs and maintenance challenges that would be encountered with a line along the greenway and it provides power capacity near possible future development sites along the highway," she stated.

Chinn, in response to The Oak Ridger's questions, stated R&R Properties, of which he is co-owner, owns about 14 acres in front of the Carbon Fiber Training Facility in Horizon Center. 

"The land is immediately adjacent to the TVA high voltage lines and could potentially be used for an electrical substation like Ms. Smith mentioned. I doubt the substation would take much more than one acre, and we would be willing to consider an offer," he stated. He also stated R&R had not received any communications from the city of Oak Ridge with regard to the property.

Watson at City Council's regular June meeting warned that anything that changed the cost of the project would affect customers’ electric bill rate.

“It may be a win-win. We just need to monetize it,” he said, responding to Smith's comments.

Earlier in March, City Council member Jim Dodson asked about the same route Smith is now promoting. Ba said it would involve "building a whole new substation from the ground up" and it would take time to get the land from DOE to do so.

He said the project, using that route, would take four and a half years which would be too long given the need for the power. 

Those comments came before Watson's more recent statements that DOE could provide the land at a faster pace. City staff has not yet addressed the possibility of purchasing the property from R&R Properties.

Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal and email him at bpounds@oakridger.com.