AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The owner of a large, privately preserved spread in the Texas Hill Country is fighting to persuade regulators to change the route of a planned electric transmission line that could cut through the area known for wildlife habitat protection.
The power line is slated to cross part of the Hershey Ranch, 1,561 acres donated as a conservation easement to the Hill Country Land Trust, which prevents future development on the land in return for significant property tax breaks in perpetuity, The Austin American-Statesman (https://atxne.ws/1S0tAk6 ) reported.
Officials say the transmission line is about 13 miles long and is meant to support the growing electrical needs east of Fredericksburg. The line is estimated to cost $30 million and would improve reliability of the electrical transmission system, according to officials.
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The owners of the ranch have appealed to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, saying the transmission line is at “odds with the ranch’s vital, permanent role in wildlife habitat protection.”
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist Jessica Schmerler also testified that the agency is concerned about “potential fragmentation of wildlife habitat from transmission line construction” in conservation easement zones.
But PUC officials said in a final order that the chosen route reduces wildlife habitat fragmentation while providing the maximum distance from homes.
The trouble is that even if the Hershey Ranch were to ultimately succeed in rerouting the line, it might come at the expense of some of its Hill Country neighbors, including others with conservation easements.
David Adelman, who teaches environmental law at the University of Texas, said that the siting of transmission lines “do have environmental impacts and they do implicate property rights in a significant ways.”
“The bottom line,” he said, “it’s hugely politicized to site transmission lines.”
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Information from: Austin American-Statesman, https://www.statesman.com
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