When we built our house 48 years ago, Western Mass. Electric had to install poles and run lines up the hill on a brand-new section of road. A utility pole would be needed at the northwest corner of our property, and suddenly there was talk of another pole on the lawn. We opted for burial from road to house. The telephone company didn't want to run its lines a half mile just for us, so they dropped a wire on the hypotenuse, which happened to be a hayfield.
It was on the grass, then tucked into the dirt road and buried across the lawn.
It made what would soon be our nine-party line work just fine — until a hay baler cut it the following summer.
The wires out front aren't pretty, and the view across the valley — especially as more and more houses were added - is marred by nearly enough black lines for a music staff. Along with a neighbor, we decided to investigate making the wires and poles disappear.
It's pricey, we learned. Each homeowner would have to chip in and pay whatever WMECO asked to put those wires underground. A half dozen or more of us figured it was worth it, probably even adding value to the properties. One man said no, and the deal died.
So trees continue to fall across those wires and knock out the power, not just on our road but wherever the overhead route has been taken. Squirrels dance nimbly along, high above our heads, and, more frequently than one
In the storms this month, more than a million people in the Northeast were without power, some of them for more than a week. The main causes were ice, wind and falling trees.
Crews struggled for long hours to get power back so people would be warm, so their pipes wouldn't freeze, so they could cook food, get water and take showers. Having no power for a couple of hours is a nuisance, being without it for more than a day starts to have its costs — tossing out food that may have spoiled in the refrigerator, for instance. For longer intervals, pipes may have to be drained, motel rooms rented, freezers emptied.
It would be interesting to know what the total cost of restoring power was, not just for the electric companies but for the individuals who had to pay tree companies, plumbers, electricians and innkeepers.
The price of an outage ought to be stacked up against what gets spent by the tree trimmers that regularly make their rounds, paid by WMECO, and want to trim, trim, trim near the wires. They spent more than two weeks just on the two roads here and guess what. A tree apparently fell across the wires in that December 12 storm, one that apparently was in hiding when they came through. It ought to be stacked up against what it costs to restore power to a million or more people when nature is creating new paths through an area.
It ought to be stacked up against what it costs individuals to take care of food and shelter when their houses are no longer habitable, including decisions to spend up to $4,000 to install a propane generator that would keep at least a few things going in a house. It ought to be stacked up against lost electrical sales and losses to the business community when stores have to close. And then perhaps someone could figure out that burying electrical and telephone lines might be the way to go more often. It's certainly a common requirement in many new developments.
The industry says underground is not cost effective. Industry studies point out that hurricanes can damage even transformers for underground and that maintenance costs won't fall enough to cover underground installation.
Petroleum companies once protested requirements that they not use thin-skinned tankers that might spill oil all over the place. Too expensive, they said. Sometimes reliability is costly.
Underground across the nation may not be feasible. Underground in critical, well-chosen areas could be safer, prettier and more there.
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