Today the Baltimore Sun reported on growing opposition to a proposed power line project that would include 140-foot transmission towers on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway, which is proposed by Pepco Holdings, could present a special threat to habitat around Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland.

From The Sun:

A $1.2 billion, 150-mile power line that would cross Maryland and lay high-voltage cables under the Chesapeake Bay for the first time has been proposed to ease the threat of blackouts on the growing Delmarva Peninsula.

But the proposal is generating opposition from environmentalists, landowners and even business interests in mostly rural Dorchester County, who worry that the project could disrupt farming, damage sensitive marshlands and blight the area’s growing tourism…

The transmission lines would skirt Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, a vast expanse of woods, wetlands and water south of Cambridge that is home to bald eagles, endangered Delmarva fox squirrels and tens of thousands of geese, ducks and other birds.

Suzanne Baird, the refuge’s manager, said that while the wildlife preserve itself might not be touched, its fate is tied to that of the private land bordering it. Of particular concern are the tidal marshes and the upper reaches of the Blackwater River, which she called “the heart and blood of this refuge.”

“These wetlands are incredibly fragile,” she said.

The refuge is losing 150 acres per year through a combination of sea level rise, land subsidence, erosion and the depredations of non-native nutria, large rodents that eat the grasses holding unstable marsh soils together.

“Even minor impacts will accelerate marsh loss,” Baird warned.

The Baltimore Sun says the current proposal will cut through the largest privately owned forest in the state — forest that adjoins the refuge. Degraded wetlands and water quality would put pressure on a refuge that is already feeling the full effects of global warming and erosion.

According to Pepco Holdings, the company is looking at alternative routes and considering suggestions that they lay the cable underwater all the way to Vienna or underground along existing highways.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Blackwater NWR, Maryland