Out of an abundance of caution for the health, safety and welfare of Monmouth County families, JCP&L’s powerline project should be rejected as proposed, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) in a statement submitted to the New Jersey Senate Economic Growth Committee on February 6, 2017. Addressed to Chairman Lesniak and Members of the Senate Economic Growth Committee, the statement read:
I thank you for this opportunity to have my testimony in opposition to the Jersey Central Power & Light’s (JCP&L) current application for their Monmouth County Reliability Project (MCRP) made part of the official record today. I am pleased to work with local residents of the affected communities--including Rachel Kanapka and the members of Residents Against Giant Electric (RAGE)--as well as several local elected officials including Sens. Kyrillos and Beck.
As the elected Representative of New Jersey’s Fourth Congressional District, I have had the opportunity to walk the route of this proposed project and stand in the schoolyards and backyards which would lie in the shadows of the proposed MCRP monopoles. As such, I have no doubt that the effects will be devastating for the five communities involved, and by extension, the County.
Almost immediately from the very start of the installation of the 130’-210’ monopoles, home values of those near the route will decline significantly causing serious economic hardship for communities that are still reeling from Superstorm Sandy. Anyone who desires to sell or must sell due to a myriad of factors including change of job or retirement may not only suffer a steep loss but may have difficulty even finding a buyer. Anecdotal evidence shows this difficulty in finding a buyer has already begun.
There is precedence for this concern found in the experience of those from Chino Hills California. Testimony provided at a 2012 Congressional hearing demonstrated that property values plummeted overnight by 17 percent or more when a project nearly identical to JCP&L’s became a reality there.
Not only did homeowners suffer economic loss, but the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) can use “unsafe distance from any power line or tower” in its criteria on whether or not to provide FHA insurance. I’ve been in the backyards of homeowners adjacent to the rail line in parts of Monmouth County—they will only be yards away from the monopoles.
Chino Hills had a happy outcome. Eventually, the California Public Utilities Commission reversed the decision and voted to place portions of the lines in Chino Hills underground.
Most importantly—and out of an abundance of caution—I oppose to the JCP&L project as proposed because of potential health hazards to children due to daily exposure to low frequency magnetic fields. Though some may argue that there is little or no adverse health link to exposure and may produce select studies that suggest that, as Chairman of the House of Representatives subcommittee on global health I have reviewed documentation from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other sources and know that there is statistically relevant evidence including studies that suggests otherwise.
A New York Times article in July 2014 said that cancer caused by an extremely low frequency magnet field was an “uncomfortable possibility” and noted that an “epidemiological study comparing children in Denver who died of cancer from 1950 to 1973 with a control group of other children found that those who lived near electrical distribution lines were twice as likely to develop the disease as those who did not. A subsequent study, by scientists who sought to eliminate what was seen as flaws in the first study, had nearly identical conclusions.”
In 2002, the WHO concluded that low frequency magnetic fields were “possibly carcinogenic.”
In 2007, the WHO reiterated that the evidence of cancer risk from low frequency magnetic fields “is sufficiently strong enough” to cause a concern.
A massive French study that included all 2,779 cases of childhood acute leukemia in France over 2002-2007 and 30,000 contemporaneous population controls concluded that there were increased odds for childhood acute leukemia occurrence living within 50 meters of high voltage power lines.
Over my 36 years as a Member of Congress, I’ve been the prime author of several major Public Laws including research and services for persons with autism, assisting veterans with the Persian Gulf mystery illness, and a major amendment to help atomic veterans and their surviving widows and children. Other bills I’ve written are currently pending on Lyme disease and neglected tropical diseases. In the 1980s, I cosponsored an Agent Orange amendment—it failed, although today Agent Orange exposure is recognized a basis for disease and veteran’s service connected disability.
Each of those legislative initiatives had or has one thing in common—overcoming a culture of denial of the science. That same ill-conceived philosophy to reject evidence gathered worldwide must be conquered here.
Therefore, should this transmission project be proven to be essential to the reliability of the electric grid in Monmouth County and New Jersey, out of an abundance of caution and concern for the families—especially children—who may be adversely affected by the project, I believe the line should be buried underground.
I commend Senators Kyrillos and Beck for their leadership and I urge the full committee to work to ensure that the project as currently proposed be rejected.
Thank you.
