Crawford County passes resolution for information concerning the 765 kilovolt transmission line

The Crawford County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution requesting documents and other detailed information concerning Dairyland Power Cooperative’s and GridLiance-Heartland’s proposal to build a 765 kilovolt transmission line through Wisconsin’s Driftless region last week. The resolution acts on the expectation of the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) for the transmission applicants to obtain input from those impacted during the initial Public Information Phase. The proposed project has raised raised considerable concern among many landowners, elected officials and state agencies in Vernon, Crawford and Richland counties. A similar request was adopted by the Kickapoo Valley Reserve Board last month. 

The Kickapoo Valley Reserve Board stated that the 765 kilovolt transmission lines would “create audible noise and visible corona discharge effects that are significantly magnified under a high humidity conditions.” Both Crawford County and the KVR Board noted that the facility “would add hazardous obstacles for numerous migrating and resident raptors, waterfowl, grassland and song birds that frequent the Driftless area.”

The No 765 Line says that “Dairyland and Gridliance-Heartland are solely proposing, Maribell, the first 20-mile segment of a roughly 200-mile 765 kilovolt system that would stretch across the Driftless from Genoa to Portage before heading south to the Wisconsin/Illinois border. Use of the existing transmission corridor that co-developers see as their primary focus, at this time, would involve very substantial expansions of the 161 kilovolt transmission corridor heading south-southeast out of Genoa, turning due east near Seneca before reaching the Bell Center substation, 1.3 miles south of Gays Mills. Over that stretch, transmission corridor widths would have to be expanded from roughly 100 feet to 250 feet; and tower heights increased from 70f eet to as much as 200 feet.

Crawford County’s Resolution asks Dairyland Power Cooperative and GridLiance-Heartland to reply to 18 document requests ranging from detailed maps with routingpreferences, to measures required for environmental sensitivities and to impacts on electric customer bills be provided by March 15. Dairyland has stated that their application would be submitted as early as July 2026.

It has been reported that Vernon and Richland Counties are refining resolutions for information as well.

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