March 28, 2004 Mosinee, WI

For months, the American Transmission Company (ATC) has flooded the airwaves with dozens of radio, TV, and newspaper ads about the Arrowhead-Weston transmission line.   In these ads, ATC makes grandiose statements to the good people of Minnesota and Wisconsin --ATC promises to be good stewards of the land and treat all land owners, in the path of this giant electric line, fairly and respectfully in the easement negotiation process.

The landowners now have proof that ATC never intended to honor any of these empty promises.    

Apparently because ATC lacks the required legal authority to negotiate any easements or seize private land, ATC is using third-party utilities (Wisconsin Public Service and Minnesota Power) and contractors to bully landowners, trespass on private property without permits or easements and rewrite state easement language to strip landowners of basic property rights. 

As a landowner on the line, Save Our Unique Lands (SOUL) has witnessed first-hand this duplicity.  On approximately March 1, 2004, SOUL received a letter from a Minnesota Power (not ATC) land acquisition subcontractor offering SOUL $650 for an easement and requesting a response by March 5, 2004. 

The SOUL board replied to Minnesota Power’s offer with a letter requesting some additional information delineating its lawful rights with regard to easement negotiation and a request to negotiate directly with the company that would own and operate this proposed transmission line (ATC).  A copy of SOUL’s letter is available upon request.

Minnesota Power’s only response to SOUL's lawful request was to serve SOUL with condemnation papers.  Contrary to ATC’s promises, Minnesota Power nor ATC provided no further information or communication!  

In Wisconsin, ATC's third party muscle (Wisconsin Public Service) is using high-pressure tactics and “signing bonuses” to "encourage" landowners to sign easements quickly and forego further legal scrutiny. 

Of utmost concern, is significantly altered easement language so that unsuspecting landowners sacrifice many protections that state law and current easement language affords them without their knowledge in exchange for this “signing bonus”, such as:

Ø    The right of the landowner to receive a narrative appraisal by the utility and also their right to a second narrative appraisal at the expense of the utility.  ATC is offering no appraisal whatsoever.

Ø      The right of the landowner to keep the utility from trespassing on other portions of their property without written approval or just compensation.  ATC wants total access to all landowner property at whim.

Ø      The right of the landowner to additional compensation if guy lines and anchors are placed outside the right-of-way.

Ø      The right of the landowner to refuse the use of hazardous chemicals to maintain the right-of-way.  ATC wants to force the landowner to accept chemical treatments at ATC’s discretion.

Ø      The right of the landowner for compensation for damage to trees in the right-of-way or those that encroach upon it.

Ø      The right of the landowner to limit what the utility can build on their land in the future without environmental review or just or future compensation.  ATC wants to be able to build whatever they want on the landowner’s property without any further discussion, review or compensation.

Ø      The right of the landowner for a mandatory five-day review period of materials provided by the utility.

Ø      The right of the landowner to insist that ATC replace all topsoil, schedule construction work when the ground is frozen to prevent soil compaction and compensate for right-of-way maintenance by the landowner.  ATC wants the landowner to agree that ATC can forego these protections on their land although they are state law designed to protect the environment and the landowner. 

In addition in Minnesota landowners have had their land trespassed on in an attempt to start construction before any of the required easement has been obtained. 

This is not a complete list but only a sampling.  These utilities are not good stewards of the land or respectful of landowners. 

For more information or complete documentation please contact:

Tom Kreager 715-693-3143, Linda Ceylor 715-474-2271, Mark Liebaert 715-398-5234 or
Win Erickson 218-624-0555