

E-mail from Dominion Virginia Power 09/08/2004 Update #3 - Dominion's Proposed Pleasant View-Hamilton 230 kV Transmission Line 08/24/2004 Update #2 - Dominion's Proposed Pleasant View-Hamilton 230 kV Transmission Line 07/08/2004 Update #1 - Dominion's Proposed Pleasant View-Hamilton 230 kV Transmission Line



From: John_Bailey@dom.com Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 3:58 PM Subject: Update #3 - Dominion's Proposed Pleasant View-Hamilton 230 kV Transmission Line As many of you know by now, on Tuesday, September 7 Senators Bill Mims and Russ Potts, and Delegate Joe May held a news conference to announce an agreement we reached over the past few weeks to limit the impact of our proposed powerline project on the W&OD Trail. Our original proposal was to utilize all or parts of the W&OD Trail for 11 miles between our Pleasant View Substation near Cochran Mill Road (just east of Leesburg) to a new substation site just east of Berlin Turnpike near Purcellville. This agreement leaves the historic districts of Leesburg and Paeonian Springs and the significantly wooded sections of the Trail west of Leesburg undisturbed. We recognize the historic, scenic and recreational asset that the Trail provides to the community. Much of this information was provided to the Company by you in the form of e-mails, work group meetings, discussions with your elected officials and telephone calls. We have appreciated your comments throughout this phase of the project. All of this helps to make our application to the State Corporation Commission (SCC) a better product. The need for a new powerline out to the Purcellville area is still critical. We plan to look closely at the Rt. 7 alternative (either the north or south side) that was proposed this summer in our working group meetings and we are keeping the two mile portion of the W&OD Trail on the east side of Leesburg in the study as one of three alternative corridors to get to the bypass in order to create the Rt. 7 alternative. In our letter to Senators Mims, Potts and Delegate May we committed to trying to minimize the impacts on the southern, residential side of the Trail by looking at using the northern side and possibly portions of the industrial/commercial property to the north. Additionally, we plan to look at alternatives south of the Leesburg Airport crossing northwest to the substation site. These alternatives will be compared to the Rt. 7 alternatives. After we have refined the routes we plan to present them to you at a public meeting this fall for your review and comment. After we receive your comments we will recommend a route or routes to the SCC in the first quarter of 2005. The SCC will then begin a formal process with public hearings that may take a year to complete before we have a final decision as to where the line will be built. Again, we have appreciated your comments throughout this summer. We look forward to continuing the dialogue this fall as we work towards bringing a new source of energy to keep up with the growth in the Purcellville area. Sincerely, John Bailey (back to top of page)



From: John_Bailey@dom.com Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 9:33 AM Subject: Update #2 - Dominion's Proposed Pleasant View-Hamilton 230 kV Transmission Line Greetings: My name is John Bailey and I work in Dominion's Transmission Department. A number of you have sent e-mails with concerns and questions about this powerline project and I wanted to take a moment to provide you some information on the project. This is a part of a series of updates that we will use to communicate with you as we move through the permitting process for this project. NEW INFORMATION SINCE UPDATE #1 On August 3 the Company and area localities participated in our fourth Working Group meeting to discuss alternatives to providing a new electrical source to the Purcellville area. The Working Group consists of representatives from Loudoun County, the State Corporation Commission, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, Leesburg, Purcellville, Hamilton and Paeonian Springs. A number of issues were discussed including overhead transmission line options on the W&OD Trail, overhead options along Rt. 7, issues surrounding underground transmission and performing visual simulations for the project. One request from the Working Group was for Dominion to delay the planned file date for the project, so the options could be evaluated further. The Company has since agreed to delay our November file date and our public workshops planned for September. We plan to communicate with you and the localities when we have revised dates for these activities. For those of you who did not receive my first update e-mail I have attached it below for your information. We appreciate you comments and look forward to working with you to provide a new electrical source for the folks in the Purcellville/Hamilton/Round Hill area. John Bailey (back to top of page)



From: John_Bailey@dom.com Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 3:20 PM Subject: Update #1 - Dominion's Proposed Pleasant View-Hamilton 230 kV Transmission Line Greetings: My name is John Bailey and I work in Dominion's Transmission Department. A number of you have sent e-mails with concerns and questions about this powerline project and I wanted to take a moment to provide you some information on the project. This will be the beginning of a series of updates that I will use to communicate with you as we move through the permitting process for this project. WHY DO WE NEED THIS POWERLINE PROJECT? As you know there is significant growth going on in the Purcellville/Hamilton/Round Hill area and by mid-2007 we anticipate that under certain conditions we will not be able to provide reliable electric service to our customers. In order to correct this situation we need to bring a new transmission line into the area. One option is to bring this new line down the W&OD Trail corridor. WHY IS DOMINION CONSIDERING USING THE W&OD TRAIL CORRIDOR? In 1968 Dominion purchased approximately 45 miles of W&OD Railroad property with the intent to place transmission and distribution lines on the corridor. Over the past 36 years we have continually built transmission and distribution lines on all parts of the Trail. We currently have transmission lines on approximately 30 miles of the Trail (from Cochran Mill Road east through Loudoun, completely through Fairfax and completely through Arlington). In 1978 we sold the land to the Park Authority, but retained rights to use the corridor for distribution and transmission lines as these facilities became necessary. Now a new energy source is needed in the Purcellville area and as a result we are considering using the corridor for this purpose. IS DOMINION CONSIDERING OTHER OPTIONS TO THE W&OD TRAIL CORRIDOR? Yes. We are currently looking at "on Trail" alternatives and "off Trail" alternatives. Specifically, we are considering alternative segments that would parallel Rt. 7 (on the east and west sides of Leesburg) and the Rt. 15 bypass south of Leesburg. We will compare the impacts of being on the Trail to the impacts of the "off Trail" options. We will look at the impacts on historical assets (Leeburg, Paeonian Springs and portions of the Trail), the visual impacts and the impacts during construction. We will also need to look at the same impacts on the "off Trail" alternatives. Underground alternatives will also be considered and as a part of the analysis we will consider the costs of each alternative. WHO APPROVES PROJECTS OF THIS TYPE? Approval for transmission projects above 150 kV (such as this proposed 230 kV line) rests with the State Corporation Commission (SCC). We will submit an application this fall and then the SCC process takes over. The SCC issues an Order for Notice where we are directed to advertise the hearing dates, one of which is typically held the locality. For the last Loudoun project the SCC held the hearing at the Loudoun Board of Supervisors hearing room where the public addressed the SCC Hearing Examiner who serves as the role of a judge for the case. They will follow this with the formal portion of the hearing in Richmond. The Hearing Examiner typically visits the routes being considered and then writes a report (Hearing Examiner's Report). The three SCC Commissioners use this report, public input and filed testimony to write the Final Order, which informs the Company whether or not the project is approved and determines the location of the line. This process with the SCC can take over a year to complete. HOW IS DOMINION GATHERING PUBLIC INPUT? We are spending this summer meeting with the localities, elected officials, the general public and interested parties to hear what issues are important to the community. We have asked each locality, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and the SCC to participate in a "work group" this summer to help identify the key issues surrounding this project. We also intend to have a public workshop to present to the general public the alternate routes under consideration and get feedback. With feedback from the public and the localities the Company will develop options to file in our application to the SCC. We expect to file our application with the SCC in November. WHAT'S NEXT? We will continue to meet with the "work group" this summer with our next meeting scheduled for August 3 from 10-2 pm in the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors meeting room. We will also have our pubic information meeting in August or September and I will send another e-mail our when we have the specific date and location. We are also preparing a website that will have project information (project information, maps, visual simulations, etc). The website should be up early next month. We look forward to receiving your input throughout this summer and during the SCC process. John Bailey (back to top of page)