Lansdowne power station

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 14

Lansdowne power station

Sir, —Some i_isconceptions should be corrected. (1) The site is quite unlikely for a power station (which would emit smoke or nuclear pollutant, warm water, and noise, and be attended by a large staff and fuel trucks) but is almost certainly intended for a substation (which would emit no pollutant and, if so designed, no noise and involve only a small staff). (2) The New Zealand Electricity Department is to be commended upon its choice of site (on sloping and poor agricultural land well screened from view). (3) Power feeders into the site under the department’s control will almost certainly be pylon-carried and may eventually be two twin lines over the hills and two twin lines on the plains. Providing the hill lines march up the valley and directly over the crest, they would be unobjectionable. (4) Lower-tension outfeed power lines, if supported by wood poles, would be very objectionable on the spurs of the hills and I much hope that local landowners will refuse wayleaves for other than underground- cables and that all interested persons will register their objections to obtrusive poles with the local bodies concerned. Aerial lines on the plains would be tolerable. — Yours, etc.,

CHRISTOPHER FENWICK, F.R.G.S., F.I.E.E. March 8, 1972.

Sir, — That Lansdowne Valley is the only logical place for an electrical substation is nonsense. In my opinion the siting of the future nuclear power station is the important issue and this should be carefully decided now as this will influence the position of the substation. — Yours, etc., I. G. B. WILSON, March 8, 1972.