This past Wednesday, the Hamden community came out in force to hear what United Illuminating ("UI"), the local utility company, had to say about its plan to trim or remove all street trees within 8 feet of utility wires, (the Utility Protection Zone). At the end of the meeting, the consensus was that the public was not sold on the program. The presentation, the comments from the citizenry and the input from the mayor were all a great lesson in Civics. I wish there had been more students from the high school there, to witness the event.
United Illuminating sent a team, experienced with dealing with the aftermath of storms, to address the crowd. They presented a well thought out plan for making the utility more resilient. As we know, the current electricity delivery system is vulnerable to damage in extreme weather, and the cost to restore power is very expensive. Alternatives, such as burying power lines, are so expensive, as to be impractical. The plan in place, which has been approved by PURA (The Public Utilities Regulatory Agency) , strives to balance the risk to UI at an effective price, while preserving the rights of customers.
Jim Cole, who gave the bulk of the presentation, tried to make the case for the utility and to ease anxieties by stating that no private trees will be taken down and that the Town's Tree Warden would be consulted during the project. All affected customers will be notified by mail or phone. He also stated that United Illuminating is committed to replanting trees and grinding stumps on a case by case basis. There were lots of statistics in the presentation. One study has shown that a category 3 hurricane would take down 70% of the trees in Connecticut. 30% of the trees today are over 81 years old, and therefore more vulnerable. During Super Storm Sandy, 90% of the damage was caused by trees. A major storm may knock out power for two weeks, per United Illuminating's own Emergency Response Plan. In a storm followed by a deep freeze, this could prove disastrous to life and property.
The benefits to the public would be as follows: a reduction in outages of 25-50%, increased public safety by allowing access for first responders, a reduction in blocked roads, and improved lines of sight in the areas trimmed.
The current plan is an 8 year plan. In the first 4 years, the focus will be on likely problem areas and protecting power to priority places such as hospitals, fire and police departments.The Pilot Program from January to June 2014, affects 40 miles of the 2800 miles in the United Illuminating system, and includes Hamden. Lewis Tree Corporation has the contract to trim and/or take down trees.
The meeting was then opened to public comments. I was impressed on how many people had done their homework and had thoughtful suggestions to make. There were some shrill comments, but for the most part, people were respectful. I was pleased to hear one person, while complaining of the plan, say that United Illuminating's people were heroes during the past storms, working round the clock to restore power to homes.
Some of the issues raised deserve some attention:
1) Several people asked about the estimates of how many trees would be affected, and learned that UI won't know that until the work begins. There is no plan to do a tree inventory prior to starting the work.
2) While the Town Tree Warden has the power to mediate disputes between customers and UI, under this plan, PURA has the final say.
3) Mayor Jackson and others stated that one plan does not work for every neighborhood. Wooded areas have "layers" of trees, while urban areas have their trees planted along the roads. Under this plan, one side of the street would be denuded, affecting the ambiance and value of the neighborhood.
4) If this plan is a reaction to climate change and increasingly strong storms, has anyone considered the value of trees in mitigating climate change? PURA does not work with the Department of Environmental Protection. Its mandate is to keep the power on and at a reasonable cost to consumers.
5) While there are verbal assurances that owners will have a say on what trees are cut, what oversight will UI have over the crews taking down the trees? Mistakes will be made, but there is no clear plan to deal with that.
6) A cost-benefit analysis has been done for UI, but no one has done a cost-benefit analysis for the consumer, particularly homeowners with stumps in front of their house.
I can go on and on, but will summarize the comments as indicating a concern about the lack of deeper planning on the part of UI.
In fairness, the auditorium was packed with people who felt strongly about the removal of trees. Perhaps there are many more in town that agree with the plan and decided to stay home. We will never know. The process, however, was exciting to see. A town is only as strong as its people, and Hamden has a lot of thoughtful, dedicated citizens committed to preserving the Town for generations to come.
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