Does Pepco have what it takes to get it right?

To the editor:  Does Pepco have what it takes to get it right?

“Better safe than sorry” came to mind when I saw the PEPCO President’s very public apology for the delays restoring customers’ service after the recent storm.   Too bad the money for a full-page ad in the Washington Post hadn’t been invested in basic system maintenance to prevent such emergencies.

Thank you, Calvert County Commissioners, for formally intervening in Pepco’s proposed Mid Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) project.  The decision to be an intervener allows the County to examine and question Pepco’s proposed locations of its MAPP facilities, including the proposal to use land in rural Port Republic in the Parkers Creek headwaters for the location for the biggest AC/DC converter facility ever built in the US.

Of all places to take such a large and irreversible gamble!  In the past 20 years, the Parkers Creek watershed has received much effective County, state and private attention to minimize the impacts of human development on the natural environment. Pepco’s proposal to build on land zoned farm and forest in the Parkers Creek watershed is neither logical nor respectful of the County’s exemplary land use planning.  The County has designated sites for industrial and commercial activities and invested our public funds to provide industrial infrastructure for exactly this type of project.  Let’ s put that planning and investment to good use.

If Pepco had an excellent track record conducting its basic operations I would be more willing to gamble that it can safely build and operate this unproven technology.  MAPP may be diverting Pepco’s funds and its management’s attention from its existing operations; which by the Pepco President’s own admission, clearly need more investment and care, and will for years to come.

Being a good corporate citizen means not having to say you are sorry.  Keep this project out of the Parkers Creek watershed.

Very truly yours,

Joy A. Bartholomew
Port Republic

The writer is a former board member of the American Chestnut Land Trust and member of Calvert Citizens for Safe Energy.