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But our community is also an energy crossroads. Lots of it travels through here. Some of it gets used here. But most of it is headed elsewhere for use by other people.
There are some economic benefits to that. There are also some drawbacks -- pollution, ugly infrastructure scarring our lush, green landscape.
Every community must -- or should -- shoulder some of that power infrastructure. But York County is already carrying more than its fair load. And it looks like that load could get even heavier with a proposal to build a major natural gas pipeline from the Lower Chanceford Township area up through Hellam Township, roughly
paralleling the river.
The 33-mile line, proposed by Houston-based Spectra Energy, largely would run through an existing electric line corridor. So it wouldn't be as intrusive as a pipeline plowed through virgin territory. And well-intentioned Spectra officials are here in force, holding meetings with residents, obviously taking their mission with sensitivity.
Still, residents along the route have legitimate concerns about property values, disruptions caused by construction and maintenance, and even environmental concerns -- as the project would run through a truly special fishing stream, Muddy Creek, plus Rocky Ridge County Park and other potentially environmentally sensitive areas.
A telling irony is that the proposed pipeline would have to negotiate a right of way with the landfill in Lower Windsor Township. Now that's an interesting dance between an importer of trash and an exporter of gas.
This is a big dig in the still mostly rural eastern edge of the county. It's a major disruption -- with construction calling for wide trenches to be dug, pipe to be bent and installed and covered back up.
Company officials offer assurances that restoration work would be thorough -- and we have no reason to doubt that.
But the overarching question is: How much energy infrastructure do we have to support?
Consider: We have two nuclear power plants in our vicinity -- Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island. We have one of the most polluting coal-fired power plants in the state at Brunner Island. We have an incinerator that burns trash and creates electricity -- which officials are proposing to expand. We have several hydroelectric dams along the river. A new gas-fired power plant seems destined to start construction in southeastern York County soon. Transco, a Tulsa, Okla.-based energy company, is trying to make the case to build a natural gas pipeline that would cut across southern York County.
And a major new power line moving electricity from coal-fired plants in West Virginia to New Jersey stands a good chance of being proposed to run through our county.
Granted, our growing nation needs power. And we'll need even more as we turn to more electric-powered vehicles to battle global warming and spiraling oil prices -- particularly the relatively clean electricity created by natural-gas-fired turbines.
But enough already in York County! We're already a net exporter of power. We already have major natural gas lines running through the county.
Find some other place to link gas pipelines -- the goal of this project.
Some, perhaps those outside this area, will say that's a NIMBY -- not in my backyard -- attitude.
True. But have they seen our backyard? It's already riddled with power plants, high-voltage cables, pipelines and major trucking routes.
How about theirs?
