For the second time in less than a year, residents troubled by health concerns are attempting to block plans by Commonwealth Edison to deliver more electric power to Lake County communities.
Worries about possible health hazards from electromagnetic fields have, temporarily at least, pushed aside demands for more electricity as village leaders in Lake Zurich Monday night voted 4-3 against approving zoning that would have allowed Commonwealth Edison Co. to build a substation that would serve much of southwest Lake County.
About 100 residents packed Village Hall asking leaders to postpone the decision on zoning.
Mayor James W. Kay, who cast the deciding vote, said, “As long as there’s a doubt in anyone’s mind (about the safety of electromagnetic fields), we have to make certain that we know all of the facts.”
Village officials did pass a compromise resolution supporting the location of the substation but decided to withhold approval for about six months until a study is done.
Last summer, an Edison proposal to string six miles of high-voltage lines from Antioch to Round Lake Beach ran into heavy opposition from area residents concerned about the effects of electromagnetic fields. The Lake County Board and several state legislators voiced opposition to those lines.
A hearing by the Illinois Commerce Commission on that proposal will be held this spring.
Public fears have grown in recent years over the possible health hazards of electromagnetic fields, which are emitted by electrical appliances and electric power lines.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in February called for more research on the effects of electromagnetic fields and issued a statement that said that too little is known about the possible health risks.
The EPA said researchers should look at reports of reproductive disorders and cancers allegedly being caused by too much exposure to electromagnetic fields.
Kay emphasized Tuesday that the community badly needs more electric power in order to keep pace with rapid development in the area and that a decision has to be made at the end of the six-month study period.
“The bottom line is . . . that this is not going to be dragged out. There is a real need for power here,” Kay said.
Edison officials say the substation is needed for the utility to meet growing demands for electricity in the Lake Zurich area.
If the substation isn’t built, demand for electricity will stress the system when people need electricity the most, said Gary Wald, an Edison spokesman.
“For example, on a particularly hot day when more people are using air conditioning, we wouldn’t be able meet the demand,” he said.
The substation would replace an older substation and have the capacity to deliver twice as much power to the area, Wald said. The current substation is on Old Rand Road, just south of Illinois Highway 22. The new substation would be in the new Lake Zurich Industrial Center on Oakwood Road on the northeast side of town.
The Village Board will take up the issue again in about six months, Kay said, after an intergovernmental committee completes a study of possible alternatives to the substation and the new power lines that would run to it.
The committee includes representatives from Lake Zurich, Wauconda, Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods and Ela, Freemont and Libertyville Townships, areas that would be served by the substation and new power lines.
Some residents have proposed that Edison bury the lines for the new substation, but an Edison spokesman said burial would increase the level of the electromagnetic fields. Soil is not a barrier to an electromagnetic field, and buried lines are only about five feet below ground, but overhead lines are about 20 to 40 feet above the surface, said Tom Hemminger, environmental services manager for Edison.
In addition, plans call for the overhead poles at the Lake Zurich site to be designed in such a way as to minimize the strength of the electromagnetic field, Hemminger said.
“Even if we didn’t build a new a substation or lines and used lower voltage lines through the area, there would still be more electromagnetic fields being generated,” he said. “The amount of an electromagnetic field increases with the amount of electricity.”
