Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Vasona substation proposal sparks a number of rumors that instill fear

PG&E denies many of the statements in 'fact sheet'

Ann Burns defends position

By Clarence Cromwell

The rumors spread like wildfire about the Vasona Substation that Pacific Gas and Electric wants to build near the corner of Lark Avenue and Winchester Boulevard.

It started with a "fact sheet" about PG&E's proposed substation that warns residents of impending explosions, fires, floods of oil and other plagues that threaten neighbors if the substation is approved. The information from this original "fact sheet" proliferated in letters to the editor, at least one other fact sheet by the group of neighbors opposed to the substation, at community meetings on the topic and in conversations all over town.

Ann Burns, the Newell Avenue resident who led the charge against the compressed natural-gas station in the same area and who now plans to topple the proposed Vasona Substation, confirmed that she wrote the original fact sheet. Burns said the sheet was based on information gathered by her neighborhood group and herself.

But town and PG&E officials say the fact sheet not only contains numerous inaccuracies, but in some cases deliberately spreads misinformation about PG&E's project.

"I'm befuddled as to why this is coming up here, as to why this type of scare tactic-- I guess it's a scare tactic--is being used," said Scott Blakey, PG&E spokesperson. "I'm appalled that anybody would play on the fears of people like this."

Burns insists that the fact sheet is entirely correct. She raised the following points, among others:

* Affordable housing--Burns alleges that the town wants PG&E to build the Vasona Substation so it can move transformers there from the Miles Avenue substation and let the town buy the Miles Avenue property to build affordable housing, cramming all the transformers into one neighborhood.

Town manager David Knapp said the affordable housing is proposed on Miles Avenue property next-door to the PG&E substation, and no PG&E land is required. The Town Council recently debated the appropriateness of placing housing next-door to a substation before deciding to loan Community Housing Developers $250,000 to help build 12 units there.

"I have no information that PG&E is planning to do anything with the substation at Miles Avenue, and the housing is being considered as if the substation is going to stay exactly as it is," Knapp said. "Ann Burns is putting that out, and she's lying. The discussion has already been had with her in planning. She already knows that that's not true."

The town has no authority over PG&E pertaining to the substation. The utility must ask for permission to build it from the California Public Utilities Commission.

* Noise--The second fact sheet that Burns' group put out might be correct in stating that the station could create an unpleasant noise level. Blakey said PG&E engineers estimated that the one-transformer facility would create, at the most, 50 db of noise at the perimeter of the property, but only during peak production times. In a faxed message, Blakey stated that that level of noise would occur "on an irregular basis, depending on electric demand."

The town's noise ordinance forbids noises 6 db louder than the db level specified for any noise zone. That would put the transformer just above the permitted limit if the station happened to be working at its maximum capacity between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when the noise ordinance would limit noise to 42 db in the area around Charter Oaks. During the day, 56 db noises are permitted.

* Fire and explosions--Burns' fact sheet states that Charter Oaks will be in danger of a fire if transformers explode or launch sparks. Transformers do indeed explode from time to time, officials from PG&E and the county Fire Department confirmed. But transformer explosions aren't as bad as they sound, the officials added.

"The transformers that we use in these stations are very stable and not given to blowing up," Blakey said, although he conceded that some transformers explode when overheated or when hit by lightning.

Two fire officials described transformer failures as infrequent, minor events.

"There really isn't much of a fire danger with transformers," said Dirk Mattern, Santa Clara County's deputy chief of fire prevention, "especially if they're in a yard like this one will be. If there were a failure of the transformer, it wouldn't affect much around it. The yard is fairly large, and there's nothing around that will be affected by it.

"I find it difficult to believe that anything they could put out there would expose surrounding buildings," Mattern continued. "The kind of fire [that starts] with a transformer doesn't emit flying embers."

The county's district fire chief, Hal Hendrix, said of transformer failure, "It's like a light bulb blowing out."

*Insurance rates--Patricia Ropp, a Los Gatos agent and broker for Farmers Insurance, said the substation would not affect homeowners' ability to buy insurance. Burns wrote that insurance companies could raise rates or cancel insurance policies for homes in the neighborhood.

Ropp said insurance rates are based on eight factors: a house's age, type of roof, size, price, quality of wiring in the house, quality of plumbing and level of maintenance.

* Home loans--A substation would not affect home loans, World Savings Mortgage Loan consultant Mai Bui said, although Burns' fact sheet predicts that financing will become "extremely difficult," with banks asking for 40 percent down payments on nearby homes if the substation is built.

"The rates would be the same," Bui said. "We don't care. Any electrical wire can make your house have a fire. What's the difference of a big one or a little one?"

* Oil and gas--The substation would not contain "more than 100,000 gallons of oil and 3,000 pounds of sulfur hexaflouride gas" as Burns' fact sheet states. Nor would it contain eight to 12 transformers.

Both substances would be used in much smaller amounts, Blakey said, and neither would pose a danger to residents or the environment.

Burns and Jack Aiello, another member of her opposition group, calculated that the site could hold eight to 12 transformers based on a conversation with a PG&E engineer. A dozen transformers would hold 144,000 gallons of oil.

PG&E's application, however, asks the state for permission to build one transformer and shows where a second transformer could be built later. A single transformer holds 12,000 gallons of mineral oil, a highly refined petroleum product.

Moreover, PG&E disputes the prediction that the creek could flow with oil.

Burns wrote: "If released by blowup or natural disaster, the oil would run through Charter Oaks and into Los Gatos Creek ... ."

Blakey explained that a basin near the transformer will catch any oil spilled; the basin can hold all the oil in the transformer plus a little more, he said. Any spilled oil would be pumped out of the holding basin by a specially equipped truck and removed from the site.

The catch basin would not allow ground water to mix with the oil, nor oil to flow into the ground, Blakey said. He added that oil rarely comes out of the transformers, saying that even fires and lightning strikes, when they happen, can't burst open a transformer.

Sulfur hexaflouride gas is an odorless, chemically inert, nontoxic and nonflammable gas used in heavy-duty switches to prevent arcing. The station's three heavy-duty switches would be sealed within cylinders full of the gas, compressed to 3,000 pounds per square inch.

* Electromagnetic fields--Burns believes electromagnetic fields related to the substation would pose a health risk to residents in the La Rinconada area, she said.

Burns' flyer states: "The transformers will be massive (up to 30 feet high) transmitting large amounts of EMF through Charter Oaks."

Asked to explain, she told the Weekly-Times that she believes the metal poles in PG&E's project would transmit EMF throughout Los Gatos and Monte Sereno like an antenna sending out a radio signal.

"The towers are to beam the EMF out," Burns said. "They beam the EMF from the substation."

According to PG&E's application, the towers would support the 230 kilovolt Metcalf-Monta Vista transmission line. The line passes over the site now, but if the substation is built, a branch of it will dip down to provide the power. And wooden poles currently holding up the transmission line would be replaced with the metal poles Burns referred to.

Blakey said magnetic fields exist wherever there is electricity, including in household electrical appliances. The fields in question would surround the transmission lines--not the towers--as a natural result of the electricity passing through the line.

"The lines are already there, so the fields are already there," Blakey said.

PG&E takes the position that there's no proof EMFs are harmful, but also follows a state policy that requires the lowest possible level of EMF emissions, Blakey said. The Vasona Station would include a 100-foot buffer zone between the transformer and the outer walls of the property.

The strength of EMF decreases so rapidly with distance that residents at Charter Oaks would encounter higher EMF levels from their appliances than from the substation or the transmission line.

Burns said reassurances about EMF won't wash with the neighbors.

"What does matter is the fear of EMF, because people will not purchase homes if there is any fear at all of EMF," Burns said. "People are afraid of EMF. I am not going to debate whether it is right, wrong or indifferent."

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