Fires in Lahaina Hawaii, Southern California, South Carolina and others (these are only the most recent ones) were started by overhead power lines. Do we want Walker to end up like those communities?

We are not trying to stop APS from doing the project. We’d simply like them to do it in a safer, more conscientious manner.

We are asking APS to run underground lines (rather than overhead) in an effort to mitigate the possibility of wildfire caused by above ground lines sparking off (for any number of reasons) and staring a fire.

Overhead power lines pose an unreasonable and unnecessary risk and must not be used for this project.

Because the new line will run along Walker Road and crisscross it MANY times, should a wildfire start due to the new overhead lines there is a high likelihood it will cut off the main egress/escape route for many of us. (We do understand there is another way out but it’s not nearly as accessible as Walker Road is.)

Homeowner’s property insurance is already hard enough to procure and in most cases has gotten to be very expensive. In all likelihood overhead power lines will make it even more difficult to acquire and more costly because of the history overhead power lines have of starting fires.

APS is trying to make us believe running new underground power will be infinitely more expensive than going overhead. While the inital cost might be some higher (APS is throwing out STUPID high numbers with no supporting documentation) aren’t our homes and lives worth it? Apparently not to APS.

The latest word from APS is that the poles are to be 45 to 65 feet tall, (that’s the height that will stick out of the ground) and 1 to 3 feet in diameter. Many will have to have guard rails around the base due to how close they’re going to be to the road.

The forest and other vegetation is going to wiped out along the path of the poles and lines “for safety reasons”.

Underground power would disturb vegetation along the trench route for a very limited time then it would grow back. A fraction of the number of trees would be impacted as compared to overhead lines.

Aesthetically, overhead power lines will devastate the beauty of our forest which will in turn very likely drop property values.

With the existing underground power, we’re rarely out of power, and even then, it’s for short periods of time. APS openly states and even touts that their new AI system will automatically turn the power off when it senses too much wind. This is supposed to prevent forest fires. Too much wind??? What does that even mean? How often will it shut down the system? And for how long? AI is NOT the answer – underground power is!

APS has claimed underground power cannot be run the distance of this project – 7 ½-ish miles. Meanwhile PG&E is running tens of thousands of miles of underground, replacing overhead lines.

Should overhead power lines cause a fire, yes, it will start along Walker Road, but the reality is it will spread to potentially burn anything and everything south of SR69 (if they can effectively use that road as a fire break) wiping out the recreation area, the forest, homes, businesses and wildlife. That’s nothing to say what it will cost to fight it, the air quality while doing so, and the final cost of the devastation – remembering that many likely wouldn’t have been able to obtain homeowner’s insurance.

There is a bill in the legislature right now that they’re trying to get passed that will significantly reduce the amount utility companies can be held responsible for starting wildland fires. Another reason APS doesn’t care about doing the job right and running the lines underground.

What we want is for APS to do the responsible thing and run new underground lines for the safely of everything we hold dear.