Elisabeth Heslop
A new electrical transformer station has been proposed to be built in the Township of Chapple.
According to Hydro One Networks Inc., the company responsible for the transmission and distribution of electrical power in Ontario, the current transformer station in Fort Frances is reaching the end of its usable life and a new one needs to be built.
Chapple was chosen as the site because it is at a midway point of the district.
“The line that stretches from Fort Frances to Rainy River is very long and we typically try to not have long lines because the longer the line is exposed, the quality of the electricity is less, so we’re putting it in the middle so it can pick up both sides,” explained Marylena Stea, community relations officer with Hydro One.
Stea said a number of different sites in Chapple are being considered against five main criteria: environmental resources, socio-economic factors, technical criteria, cost, and public and stakeholder feedback.
Environmental resource concerns include “terrestrial and aquatic resources [wetlands, streams, forests, wildlife, and other environmental sensitive areas], recreation, and tourism.”
Socio-economic factors of a location are “agriculture, community facilities, resident and business disruption, proximity to area residences, heritage resources, aboriginal lands, and land use implications.”
Technical criteria to be considered are “proximity to load centre, proximity to transmission line, proximity to roads for easy access, flooding risk, ease of construction/maintenance, and operation.”
Cost also is a significant concern and includes several aspects such as “availability of suitable property and its acquisition, clearing and access, construction and maintenance, and facilities relocation.”
Finally, feedback from both the public and stakeholders of any potential locations must be taken into consideration.
“We usually get people phoning in and saying there is such-and-such an obstruction at this location, or there’s a school here, and that kind of thing,” noted Stea.
“Then, depending on what kind of follow-up is needed on the information, we may send someone out to meet with them or someone from a different area of Hydro One will call them.
“If it’s a real estate issue, we’ll have our real estate people give them a call back, or if it’s an environmental issue, we have our environmental team give them a call back,” she added.
As well, Stea said “we send our consultants out and they do an environmental assessment and they do soil testing and groundwater testing and that kind of thing, so all that information is taken into consideration and put into a Class Environmental Assessment which justifies picking one site over another site.”
Stea said most of the information people typically want to know can be found at www.hydroonenetworks.com, but added there are a few things they encourage people to contact them about.
“If we have people in the area who are looking to sell property that would be useful . . . any general concerns people have, we absolutely want to work with landowners so if there are concerns people have, we are looking for those concerns so we can help answer them and mitigate any issues that there might be,” Stea explained.
Anyone wanting to contact Hydro One about the project can contact Stea at 1-877-345-6799 or by e-mail at community.relations@hydroone.com
Those wanting more information about the Class Environmental Assessment process, or the proposed timeline for the project, can find it at www.hydroonenetworks.com/newprojects in the list of Current Projects.
A public meeting is planned for sometime in late August, Stea noted, by which time a preferred site will have been chosen.
It will be presented to the public, along with alternative sites and an assessment of how the locations meet the above criteria.
