Payments for Utilities lines.

[Intrepid1]

I have a power transmission line that was built years ago that goes across farmland. This is a headache working around. Like many older utilities there is no compensation for damage and inconvenience. Are there any regulations in Alberta or rules where compensation may be applied for with existing lines?

[checking]

From a Sask. perspective, I ditto your feeling on transmission lines. The one really bad aspect, here, is that SaskPower takes zero responsibility for fires originating from their facilities. A hot fuse blows off a pole out into your ripe crop, burns across property lines, and takes out a neighbour's farmyard, you are the one on the hook for all the damages.

Specific to your thoughts, in Sask., interprovincial lines pay $25.00/double pole structure on an annual bases to the property owner for weed control around the poles. There is no requirement that you have to do the control for the payment. In the last year, they asked for guy wires to reinforce a pair pole where they mounted two large transformers, and they paid $2500.00 for a little bit of extra space. That was fair. Those interprovincial pole structure also don't follow the burn you out act of god rule. They will cover damages traced to their facilities.

The best we hope for on old single phase poles that are 50 meters out in the field from road right of ways is for oilfield development. Most oilwell development requires three phase power which is now placed 18 inches inside the road right of way, and they remove the single phase lines out in the field. We've been lucky to have had ten miles of these removed over the last few years, and have two more miles slated for removal in the near future.

The ones that may have no future of ever going are the old 1950 well to well three phase lines that criss cross a couple of our quarters. No one ever received payment for them, and after sixty years of dodging, they are treated like a few more potholes.

[Intrepid1]

Here in Alberta there was a court case a year or so ago that dealt with undergound pipelines and anual payments. The power lines that I deal with go diagonally across fields and are a severe nuisance. The poles were changed a few years ago and the service crews checking lines drive across the fields. There should be some form of compensation

[checking]

These sort of issues are the types of things that property owners should talk about. Their experiences, and how they were treated and dealt with by utility companies would give us all some ammunition when our turn comes to educate those companies. Unfortunately, farmers are such a secretative lot,and won't talk about their dealings.

The standard BS is that power companies don't have the time to tell landowners when their going to check their poles. That approach may have been perfectly fine (in the laissez-faire past), and in theory that they purchased that right, if only they would stay to their right-of-ways. However, it is not possible in our poplar, willow, pothole, fenced off with no gate-approaches to their 10 to 15 meter paths. They have to trespass.

On top of that they have failed to realize that running their equipment from one field to the next over tens of miles is a good way to spread unwanted weed species, and soil diseases. If you want to get their attention, ask to see their pressure wash receipt for their trucks the next time you catch them on your field.

[Intrepid1]

I fully agree with you on the need for people to learn more about theirs rights and responsibilties in dealing with entries on to their land. We have a situation where amateurs deal with professional negotiators who have no long term interest in the land.Every one of us needs to get better at the job.