A velvet-antlered buck stared straight-on as Alan Weeks’ truck rumbled to a stop on one of the two-track paths on his 400-acre Creek County property Monday. Frozen for a moment in a stare-down, the buck suddenly turned and fled, its white tail flagging its departure.
Such a sight is one Weeks always enjoys, but lately his reaction is tempered with worry.
In the not-too-far future there could be 140-foot-tall towers, buzzing 765 kV power lines and a 200-foot-wide right-of-way cleared on a diagonal path across this land. A route cleared for the Wind Catcher Energy Connection line would take a swath through mature trees near the country home and pass near the edge of a quiet fishing pond.
It is a peaceful spot, no question.
“Imagine sitting on this deck and hearing that constant buzz,” he said as he stood outside the home with a sweeping view over the wooded area and mowed park-like grounds near the fishing pond.
People are also reading…
His is one of many properties on a proposed route for the Wind Catcher Generation Tie Line, and his family is one of at least 15 in Creek County who are in their own stare-down with Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
The landowners have denied PSO survey crews access to their lands, and if a court challenge to the company’s claim of eminent domain is successful, it could cripple the project, Weeks said. The tie line project relies on crossing private lands for about 380 miles, from the Oklahoma Panhandle to Tulsa.
Hearings are set in the Creek County Courthouse in Sapulpa for Friday morning and the afternoon of July 30 before District Judge Douglas Golden.
Because legal action is pending, Weeks submitted comments via email to reflect his feelings about the property that he has worked 18 years to purchase and improve piece by piece.
“I’m sure the other landowners feel just like me, that their place is special,” he wrote. “What’s frustrating is that all of these special places are being intruded upon for a project that no one is clamoring for and that is not really needed.”
Wind Catcher is a $4.5 billion wind power project that includes a 300,000-acre wind farm — the largest in the United States — under construction in Cimarron and Texas counties. The Energy Connection, which would be the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi, would connect to a substation and feed power into the electrical grid at Tulsa.
From there, PSO parent company American Electric Power says Wind Catcher diversifies the power sources and ultimately reduces costs for PSO customers in Oklahoma and Southwest Electric Power Co. customers in Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers and Walmart have expressed support for the project, but it has faced skepticism from others.
PSO is seeking preapproval of cost recovery for its $1.39 billion share of the project. That decision by Oklahoma Corporation Commission is pending.
After a “preferred route” for the line through Osage County to a substation planned for an area near Sperry fell through after objections from the Osage Nation early this year, other potential routes were announced through Creek County to approach Tulsa from the south or west.
In May, several families and the Bixby City Council raised objections to one of those proposed routes. On June 26, PSO announced that it had changed that plan and would instead rebuild existing lower-voltage lines near Bixby and build a substation at a location yet to be determined, likely in eastern Creek County.
Now it’s Creek County’s turn.
PSO still is doing environmental and property boundary surveys along the proposed routes to determine the best path. A final path has not been selected, according to Stan Whiteford, PSO spokesman.
“We need to conduct those surveys as part of our obligation so the line placement doesn’t disrupt sensitive environmental areas and so the boundaries are appropriate,” he said.
But the Weeks family and others along the proposed route in Creek County denied survey crews access to their properties. On June 22, PSO filed 21 petitions for injunctive relief in Creek County District Court, claiming right of eminent domain, so the crews can enter those properties.
Six of the challenges have since been dismissed, according to court documents. The other 15 have been assigned as a group to Golden’s court. Several who do not have attorneys have a joint hearing set for 9:30 a.m. Friday. Weeks, represented by GableGotwals, and several others represented by Levinson, Smith & Huffman, will be heard on July 30.
Whiteford said he could not comment on details involving legal matters and that the company’s counsel would address the concerns as required.
“We will continue to work with landowners as best we can as we move through the process for the surveys,” he said.
Two of the families in the fight have legal backgrounds of their own.
Weeks is vice president and chief industrial property counsel and deputy general counsel for a Tulsa corporate group. April Sellers-White (listed in court documents with The Sellers Family Partnership) was an associate district judge for Creek County for more than 20 years and is a member of a long family line of Oklahoma lawyers and judges dating back to the 1930s. She is among those using the Levinson, Smith & Huffman law firm.
“We don’t believe PSO has the legal right to use the power of eminent domain for this project. And if they can’t use eminent domain, then there is no way for them to make it happen,” Weeks said via email.
In their motion, Levinson argues on behalf of Sellers-White that PSO’s claim of eminent domain is premature as the route for the line is not yet determined and that the project relies upon cost recovery approval from the Corporation Commission, which has not yet ruled.
Attorneys for Weeks state in their motion that an Oklahoma law passed in 2011 specifically prohibits the use of eminent domain for siting and building wind energy facilities on private property. They argue that the “Gen-Tie Line” is part of the generation facility, not a power line required on behalf of public interest.
“It is not the type of project that allows for eminent domain. It is a private project rather than one for public use,” Weeks said. “Other providers of electricity can’t use the facilities. On top of that, the primary intended beneficiaries of the project are not Oklahomans. Only 30 percent of the generation is intended for Oklahoma.”
