Mayo dives in against Badger Coulee route

Filed under:BadgerCoulee - Wisconsin — posted by admin on October 9, 2014 @ 8:08 pm

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Well this is getting interesting.  Mayo Clinic has weighed in, opposing the Badger Coulee transmission project because it wants to build more revenue generating options in Onalaska!  Cheaper power, they claim… how many rate increases, how often, for Minnesota and Wisconsin ratepayers?

Mayo — if you’d just direct your resources to challenging need for this project, it’s vulnerable, and you could make a difference!  Put your money where your clinics are and just say no!

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Today in the Post Bulletin:

Mayo opposes Wisconsin power line

Posted: Thursday, October 9, 2014 11:01 am

MIKE TIGHE, Tribune News Service

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare objects to one of the routes for the Badger-Coulee power transmission line because it could stymie development on its new 187-acre property in Onalaska or its 8-year-old clinic a few miles away.

Although the La Crosse-based system has not determined its plans for the parcel it bought in February, chief administrative officer Joe Kruse said Monday that he and CEO Tim Johnson have filed an objection with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to the southern route of two proposed pathways.

They sent the letter last week as part of the public comment period on the proposed routes. Friday was the deadline to be included in the project’s environmental impact statement.

“We are planning to use the property for future health-care services,” Kruse said in an interview.

Mayo-Franciscan is studying what to build on the property, 80 acres of which are buildable, Kruse said, adding, “We need to grow some of our specialty practices.”

Kruse mentioned surgical and medical specialties that need more space, and said, “We wanted to prevent the power line from precluding what we might want to do.”

The southern route proposal runs from Briggs Road south along Hwy. 53 into the city of Onalaska, east along I-90 to west of Sparta, veering south to Cashton and east to I-90/94 into Dane County.

The northern route would run from the Briggs substation north to Ettrick and Blair, east to Black River Falls and along I-90/94 to Dane County.

The Mayo-Franciscan letter expressed concern that the southern route would make the south end of the property at 1240 Sand Lake Road, across from Menards, unusable for patient traffic.

“We’re also concerned about a possible helicopter flight path — not that we’re planning that, but we don’t want to preclude it,” Kruse said in the interview.

Turning east along I-90 brings Mayo-Franciscan’s 100,000-square-foot, 8-year-old clinic at 191 Theater Road into play, the letter to the PSC says. The clinic has 150,000 patient visits per year.

“We built that clinic so that we could add floors to it,” Kruse said. “Not that we’re planning to do that, but we don’t want to be precluded from doing that.”

Noting that Mayo-Franciscan traces its roots to the first hospital in western Wisconsin, the letter from Johnson and Kruse says, “Our future site at 1240 Sand Lake Road will continue the evolution of Mayo in the Midwest.”

Mayo-Franciscan is not alone in its objections. About 100 units of government, including La Crosse County and the city of Onalaska, as well as hundreds of residents, have filed objections to the Badger-Coulee project.

More than 1,600 Onalaska residents have sent dissenting letters, said Brea Grace, the city’s land use and development director, adding that city officials also will be able to speak at public hearings.

Concerns about health issues blamed on power lines, aesthetics and land values are among the objections, Grace said in an interview.

The southern route would pass within 300 feet of 160 residential properties and 72 businesses, she said. It would be within 500 feet of five day-care facilities.

The proposal’s draft statement acknowledges potential land-value reductions up to 14 percent, with an average of 4 percent to 10 percent in the Midwest, Grace said.

PSC officials said they have not tallied the total number of communications they had received about the routes by the deadline.

Wisconsin ratepayers would support the cost for the line, estimated at $540 million to $580 million.

ATC and Xcel say the line would improve system reliability, deliver cheaper power for Wisconsin consumers and provide a pipeline for wind energy from Minnesota and Iowa to population centers to the east.

The three-member PSC will determine whether the project is necessary and serves the public interest. The commission can approve, deny or modify the proposal and will select the route if the project is approved.

Public hearings are expected in December, with a final decision possible in May. The state’s departments of Natural Resources, Transportation and Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection also have roles in reviewing the application.

At the federal level, the project would need permits from the Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Natural Resource Conservation Service, National Park Service and Federal Aviation Administration.

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image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace