It is happening now. New Puget Sound Energy 100 foot poles and wires appearing on NE 24th and 156 Avenue Northeast and next, up to 80 foot poles along NE 8th and along 148th Avenue for a total of 2.5 miles. This route currently has all underground utilities. Nine miles of up to 135 foot poles is being proposed for PSE’s new 230,000 Volt Transmission Line through Bellevue neighborhoods. See CENSE.org (Coalition of Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy) for details.

What can we do? Convince the city council to advocate now for a different 2035 Vision and find a path to new technology including the increased reliability of undergrounding. Other areas of the country are finding affordable means to accomplish this now. A national survey by Costco recently resulted in 82 percent in favor of requiring utilities to bury power lines. New methods of undergrounding insert lines in a plastic tube to facilitate maintenance.

Why is this difficult? Existing Washington State Laws have tariffs that present huge economic barriers. Currently, property owners along the line must pay for all undergrounding even though it can benefit many others. In the case of the 230,000 Volt Transmission Line about 1500 property owners would be required to pay for the benefit of the 1.1 million PSE customers. We need to be equitable!

Consider joining CENSE.ORG to help bring about needed change.

Norm Hansen, Bellevue