Please assist our opposition to the expansion of APS above ground power lines!

 

Please assist our opposition to the expansion of APS above ground power lines!

Dear Village of Oak Creek resident,

As you may be aware, Arizona Public Service (APS) has proposed a 13.7-mile new powerline to run between McGuireville and the Village of Oak Creek (VOC). The purpose is to provide a backup power source in the event of an outage in the current single line into each community.

Big Park Council is not opposed to improving infrastructure, but it is opposed to APS’ conventional above-ground powerline that would mar the scenic vistas that residents and visitors currently enjoy, depreciate property values near the new powerline, and add to potential wildfire hazards in the event of a downed powerline. We support burying key sections of the project.

APS needs special approval from the U.S. Forest Service since most of the powerline would run across Coconino National Forest. Its main justification is what it claims are numerous power outages in the VOC, especially during the summer monsoon season.

The Council has tried several times to obtain detailed outage information from APS, which claims it is proprietary. However, there is a way that we can collect this information with your help!

Any APS customer can obtain detailed power outages for the last three years at their home by logging into the APS website here. If you scroll to the middle of the page, you will find an option to see your outage history over the last 36 months. Click on the “See Your Outage History” and it will display the date and duration of each outage.

However, if you do not have a username and password, you will need to create one first. Once you see your power outage information, we would ask you to go to our survey and fill in the results. All information will be kept strictly confidential. The Council will compile this data to use in our advocacy work on behalf of the VOC community.

We also have two additional survey questions that we would like you to answer below the table.

All of this should take no more than 10 minutes of your time, hopefully much less! This information is critical in helping the Council respond effectively to APS’s obfuscation. One of its real reasons for denying the public access to neighborhood outage information are shareholder profits. Once APS recovers the cost of construction, the new powerline will increase its revenue from VOC customers (on top of its proposed systemwide rate increase, pending before the Arizona Corporation Commission, of approximately 23%)!

Thank you in advance for your participation in this survey. The survey will be open until February 6th.

Click on the link below to begin the survey.

Sincerely,

John Wichert, President

Big Park Regional Coordinating Council

SURVEY LINK