To all Concerned,

We run a small vegetable farm in Gainesville, Virginia, just an hour's drive from downtown D.C. Our family farm, Stoney Lonesome, is part of a thriving local food movement featuring direct relationships between food producers and local communities. A direct connection gives folks access to fresh, healthy food, while supporting local farmers. This strengthens the future for local farms as a whole.

But there is a flipside to the economic opportunities available for small farms near urban areas: farmland equals blank space in the minds of utility company and government planners seeking to draw the next big road or power line for sprawling metro populations.

Over the past month, we have had not just one line drawn through our farm, but two. A preliminary study for the 'Buckland Bypass', a proposed highway to connect commuters from Fauquier County to I-66 while avoiding Gainesville, features a route that would plow right through the heart of Stoney Lonesome Farm, our main pond.

The latest map of a proposed Dominion Power line runs 15-story towers and a 500-kilovolt power line right through our farm as well, not a hundred yards from the projected route of the 'Bypass'.

The thought of living and working here on Stoney Lonesome Farm under high voltage EMF radiation while breathing exhaust fumes from thousands of cars and trucks each day, is devastating. The visual and functional impact of these projects on our farm is hard to imagine: a major highway through our lower fields - the future of our farm operation, monstrous transmission towers fifteen stories tall and a 150'-wide barren scar below them, all through the land we are planning to steward far into the future.

We did not take on the challenge of farming this land so that it could be reserved as blank space for future lines on a map. In the context of higher fuel costs and recent large-scale food distribution scares, local food systems emerge as a critical resource that is well-worth protecting. Metro areas need power and roads, but also need food.

Both the Buckland Bypass and the Dominion 500-kV Power Line are unnecessary and ineffective fixes that would destroy pristine farmland, wetland/environmentally sensitive areas, and areas of incredible historical and cultural significance. The Bypass proposal represents a major commuter detour that would literally pave the way for more sprawl and traffic (and, in turn, more roads through more farms). The Power Line proposal channels additional electricity production from some of the dirtiest coal plants in the country (in West Virginia and Ohio), supposedly to avoid speculated black-outs. A range of far simpler and less destructive measures can avert these black-outs during periods of peak usage.

To seize family farm land for projects that are destructive in impact, unnecessary in purpose, and ineffective in design, represents a gross abuse of power and a rejection of common sense.

Our farm is not a blank space. It is the product of centuries of hard work, it provisions local families with nourishing food, and it has a promising future for which we will, and must, fight.

For more on the Dominion Power Line Proposal, and how you can take action.

August 2007 Update:

Virginia's SCC (State Corporation Commission) will begin holding public hearings regarding the proposed 500-kV Power Line route next week. They will hold several meetings in surrounding counties over the course of two weeks, and the public has the opportunity to submit comments regarding the power line either at the meetings or on-line: www.scc.virginia.gov/caseinfo/notice.aspx. The case numbers are PUE-2007-00031 & PUE-2007-00033.

For more information on the power line and its devastating impacts, please visit the website www.whosedominion.org

It is important that we are all aware that the two proposed routes for the power line that Dominion Power submitted to the SCC do not go near (within a couple miles) or through the farm. One goes along I-66, and one goes South of the farm through Southern Fauquier County. However, for the dwindling farmland all around us, we all need to make our voices heard on this issue.

October 2007 Update:

Federal Transmission Corridor Designated and We're In It

On October 2nd the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) designated two National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC), one on each coast. The east coast corridor looks exactly like the draft corridor and includes over 200 counties in 8 Mid-Atlantic states, including 15 counties in Virginia.
The power companies must go through the state application process first. However, if the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) decides against the Dominion/TrAILCo transmission line or takes more than one year to reach a decision, Dominion and TrAILCo could then appeal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval of the line. The one year clock starts 30 days after next week's federal register publication. PEC is already in court challenging FERC’s assertion that a timely denial by the state gives the utility access to federal condemnation authority.
It's time for the state to protect the interests of its citizens. In July, Governor Tim Kaine and Attorney General Bob McDonnell jointly sent a strong letter to the Secretary of Energy objecting to the designation of Virginia counties within the corridor. DOE didn't listen. The Commonwealth of Virginia (and the leaders in all affected states) must step in and challenge this designation.

Please contact Governor Kaine and Attorney General McDonnell now and urge them to take the steps necessary to protect the interests of the citizens & farms of our Commonwealth. It takes just a few seconds.
Follow this Link to Send an Email to the Governor and Attorney General

Maps of the Corridor - http://citizen-networks.org/ct/zp_hD7E1lciO

DOE Press Release - http://citizen-networks.org/ct/zd_hD7E1lcib

Virginia's SCC (State Corporation Commission) began holding public hearings regarding the proposed 500-kV Power Line route next week. The public has the opportunity to submit comments regarding the power line on-line: www.scc.virginia.gov/caseinfo/notice.aspx. The case numbers are PUE-2007-00031 & PUE-2007-00033.

For more information on the power line and its devastating impacts, please visit the website www.whosedominion.org

It is important that we are all aware that the two proposed routes for the power line that Dominion Power submitted to the SCC do not go near (within a couple miles) or through the farm. One goes along I-66, and one goes South of the farm through Southern Fauquier County. However, for the dwindling farmland all around us, we all need to make our voices heard on this issue.