It’s sad when the Natural Resources Council of Maine, columnist George Smith (“The Central Maine Power project is wrong for western Maine,” April 17), and many people who oppose the proposed development of the Central Maine Power transmission line system have used so many untrue and/or misleading statements.

According to these critics, of the total 145-mile distance of the corridor, 53 miles of a 150- to 300-foot-wide “slash with gash” corridor is planned through a “pristine wilderness” and “beautiful undeveloped forest” to then be connected with an already existing (but to be expanded) 92-mile passage from the West Forks area to Lewiston.

However, the 53-mile corridor is within a much larger, historically working forest that has reforested and continues to reforest itself. This region is currently crisscrossed by a large number of open, improved and unimproved roadways that do not inhibit the wintering deer populations.

Even if a corridor must be constructed, any damage can be diminished by using as much of the existing roadway network as possible. Even if some of the localized brook trout communities cannot continue to exist in their present-day, small brooks and streams, they will continue to thrive throughout the rest of Maine.

Finally, it is here proposed to cancel consideration of the west-to-east corridor portion and to create this transmission extension from where it departs in the West Forks’ area crossing U.S. Route 201a and to continue its development northward along that route on into Quebec Province to connect with the nearest existing Hydro-Quebec transmission station in Canada. If done, I believe most of the opposition will disappear.

 

Bill Harmon

Benton