When Dave and I started our Facebook group, one of our main objectives was to give people a place to discuss the effects the threat of Clean Line's proposed line had on their own lives. We wanted a space where people could come and realize that they are not alone. To that end, we have a guest post tonight from a gentleman local to our corner of Arkansas.
In the coming weeks, Block Plains and Eastern Clean Line will be hosting a series of Neighbor Hours in our area in an attempt to enable meaningful discussion in the community, and to provide easy access to the Draft EIS to the many folks out here without an internet connection. Danny, who wrote the following, has generously offered to present new material at our next Dover meeting-- "Potential issues with watershed erosion and herbicide management of right-of-ways".
Danny makes a lot of good points, but I hope that readers will pay special attention to parts about the tradition of bartering we have in these hills. As Danny mentions, it is a way of life... I trade fresh, free-range eggs for locally caught fish. There is a family whom we allow to bow-hunt on our family's land in exchange for helping us optimize the area for wildlife and for a portion of the venison they take. We trade. We share. We give when someone needs something, or when we just happen to have extra and think they might like it. I can't tell you how much okra I got this summer... Along with a cabbage the size of a turkey and a cantaloupe almost as big. This is not the kind of socio-economic impact you'll read about in the draft (unless I somehow skipped over that part), but it is important. It is real.
Danny's Story
I am in the primary/preferred easement for the proposed Plains and Eastern Clean Line Project.
I am James "Danny" Taverner and have moved back to this region to be close to my family. I have a Master's Degree from Louisiana State University in Plant and Soil Systems. I conducted research for the university that included levee erosion control projects and herbicide maintenance of right-of-ways.
A supposed environmental survey was scheduled to be done across my property, I made sure to be home the day of the survey. No persons ever showed up on my 40 acre property. I wanted them to understand the sensitivity of the site through which they planned the line. The steepness of the grade on the region intended is severe. The grade is impractical to log and if the timber were to be removed, a cascade of environmental issues would follow.
I have about 2 to 3 acres of arable (farmable) land. I have a small fruit tree orchard with peaches, apples, pears, and cherries. I have raspberries, blackberries and muscadines as well. In addition to the orchard is an extensive vegetable garden and a large plot rotated between sorghum cane and corn. This small farm is irrigated by a pond which is directly within the easement and is fed by the watershed consisting of the very steep area which is also within the easement.
The produce from this farm is not sold for money but bartered which is a unique cultural identity of this region. Produce had been traded for beef, pork, eggs, labor, lumber, and even dog-sitting favors. My family has a grist mill and corn produced on the property is ground into cornmeal. We also have a sorghum mill and cook down the cane into sorghum using the same family technique passed down for generations. My grandmother used to go around and cook other people's cane for "shares". This is a cultural product that has been maintained by the production from my farmland which is irrigated by the waters from the watershed within the proposed easement.
So what would be the big deal if the line went through across the property?
The pond will receive significant amounts of silt even with standard erosion control measures. This would reduce the volume of water available for irrigation by making the pond more shallow. Having worked on levee stabilization projects around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, I am we'll aware that there is no way to fully mitigate erosion especially when the pond and watershed slope is many times more steep and rocky than a levee.
The herbicide maintenance of the right-of-way poses another significant impediment to the continuation of my farming lifestyle. I am intimately familiar with herbicides and their positive and negative attributes. My thesis research involved cultural and herbicide management techniques. I was involved in countless herbicide trials while working at Louisiana State University. The proposed herbicides commonly used in right-of-ways have the potential to be sprayed into or wash into the pond killing fish and rendering the water unusable for irrigation purposes. This would render all the hard work and money in getting a garden established and cut off an entire system of trade for the many families with which I barter.
My current home is at the edge of the easement and the aesthetic value of the beauty of an Ozark sunset will be lost. All of my out-buildings for tractors and equipment and shop are directly under the route. The shop and buildings are not visible on the satellite maps for they are within a forested area and must be seen from the ground. All of the time and expense of building the shops and having electricity and water run to the site would be undone since the buildings would have to be removed for the line. There is no other rational area for these several buildings to be placed and the years spent acquiring material and constructing them could not be duplicated.
There is no compensation for the destruction of all that I have mentioned. The thought of a private company forcing eminent domain and taking all of the aforementioned blood, sweat, and tears from my family is unfathomable.
I am but one small landowner that was never contacted until this year about this project. One small landowner in an over 700 mile line across the entire state of Arkansas. A landowner with so much to lose that there can be no reasonable compensation made for the damage to be caused. I will not stand for wealthy, out-of-state private businessmen to use the threat of eminent domain to further line their pockets under the guise of "clean energy".
I am all for renewable energy. I am a fan of wind, solar, and hydrothermal energy. This is not an attack on these resources. This is a transmission line, by a private company, willing to condemn land across two entire states and disrupting the landowners from western Oklahoma all the way to Memphis.
James "Danny" Taverner
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