DDO residents, mayor urge Hydro-Québec to bury new transmission lines

Hearings into a contentious Hydro-Québec project in Dollard-des-Ormeaux continued Tuesday night.

The utility wants to increase its capacity to meet rising demand for electricity on Montreal's West Island by erecting 16-storey, 315-kilovolt transmission lines through a three-kilometre-long stretch that runs along de Salaberry Boulevard between two substations at St-Jean and des Sources boulevards.

The current substations — which serve Dollard, Beaconsfield, Pointe-Claire and Kirkland — were built in 1957.

"The de Sources substation is at maximum capacity right now. It's actually at a point where we are not comfortable operating it in case of a large power failure," Serge Abergel, a spokesman for Hydro-Québec, told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.

About 100 residents in the area staged a protest Sunday in front of Hydro-Québec's St-Jean substation, which the company plans to expand.

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Dollard-des-Ormeaux Mayor Ed Janiszewski told Daybreak the towers, which will be twice as tall as the current 22.5-metre ones currently in place, are "not very pleasant to live beside."

"The noise factor may be reduced, but it still exists, and citizens are concerned about health issues. They're concerned about their property values, and we are a bedroom community," he said.

Janiszewski, who presented at Tuesday's environmental review (BAPE) hearing, said the transmission lines run along a bike path the community would prefer to preserve as a green belt.

Bury it underground: residents

The mayor and council, along with many Dollard-des-Ormeaux residents, have been pushing for Hydro-Québec to bury the lines underground.

Hydro-Québec estimates its proposed project would cost about $15 million. Burying the transmission lines underground would cost $45 million more — "and that cost would be passed on to ratepayers," Abergel said.

He said that the current regulatory framework prevents the utility from proposing a more expensive proposal for the same results. 

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"We have a network of about 34,000 kilometres of transport lines in Quebec. Only 200 are underground. And the reason is simple — it's extremely costly."

Though Janiszewski agreed the cost to build below ground is "exceptionally high," he hoped there would be a way to reduce it.

"We need a little bit of time to study alternative methods to be able to bury them at much less cost," he said.

Ultimately, he said, the decision will rest with the Quebec government, not with Hydro-Québec.

BAPE began hearings into the project in late April and will submit its recommendations to the Quebec Environment Minister David Heurtel by mid-August.