Power Line OKd Despite Worries Over Health Risks

Los Angeles water and power commissioners Thursday approved a major power line addition in Granada Hills and Northridge after staff engineers assured them that the project would reduce electromagnetic fields, which some studies have linked to increased risks of cancer.

In voting to go ahead with the $14.5-million project, the Water and Power Commission rejected a lone opponent’s plea to reconsider in light of possible cancer risks.

By a 4-0 vote the commission approved the environmental impact report for the project, which will add two more 230-kilovolt transmission lines to an existing 6.7-mile transmission corridor.

The corridor links an electrical receiving station in the 15900 block of Rinaldi Street in Granada Hills to a receiving station in the 18800 block of Parthenia Street in Northridge.

The two new lines will be supported by a third row of transmission towers to be installed between two existing rows of towers within the 220-foot-wide right of way.

Eldon A. Cotton, Department of Water and Power assistant general manager for power, told the board the project is needed to “beef up . . . our transmission system” to meet growing demand in the western San Fernando Valley and west Los Angeles.

At previous public meetings, several of those who live near the right of way voiced concern about health hazards, but only one showed up Thursday at DWP headquarters to continue the fight.

In impassioned remarks, Northridge resident Roger S. Waldbaum reminded the commission that only last week preliminary findings from a childhood leukemia study in Los Angeles County showed a small increase in the incidence of the disease among children living near high-current power lines and the use of certain appliances.

“You have children yourselves, I’m certain,” Waldbaum said. “If you will not protect them--you who have the power--who will?”

But commissioners said they were satisfied with a pledge by DWP engineers to “phase” the transmission lines--or connect them in such a way that magnetic fields will partially cancel each other. As a result, the engineers said, magnetic fields after the third tower is installed will be weaker at the edge of the right of way than they are now with two towers.

“We think this is an improvement,” said Mike Gage, president of the DWP board.

Just before the vote, Waldbaum said he would withdraw his opposition if DWP officials could provide data showing that “they have the ability on a consistent basis” to lower fields by phasing the lines. Department officials agreed to provide the information.

Electromagnetic fields are invisible lines of force that radiate outward from every wire and device that carries electric current, dropping off sharply with distance from the source.

Some studies have shown higher cancer rates among children living near high-current lines, while other research has found that workers in electrical jobs--such as utility linemen and power station operators--have a higher risk for some types of cancer.

However, there are ambiguities in these studies, and other research has found no link between electromagnetic fields and cancer.

The environmental impact report neither concedes that electromagnetic fields are a hazard nor describes the phasing of transmission lines as an offsetting health benefit. In fact, the plan to phase the lines is not mentioned either in the lengthy draft or final environmental reports.

“I think we just overlooked it,” one DWP engineer said later.

Waldbaum also challenged the assumption that the expansion is needed to meet growing demand, pointing out that the DWP’s own figures show that peak electricity use in the affected service areas in 1989 was the lowest in six years. But Cotton maintained that demand is expected to increase.

Plans call for construction to start in September, 1992, and to take nine months.