Officials at Connecticut Light & Power said they will review their tree-trimming policies in the wake of Hurricane Irene, which knocked out power for almost 1 million utility customers in the state.
The Hartford Courant reported Friday that CL&P President Jeffrey Butler doesn’t think his company’s policies were at fault, but they’ll conduct an internal review nonetheless.
At United Illuminating, spokesman Michael West told the Valley Indy last week that his company is constantly re-evaluating its policies — but last week’s rain and wind were unprecedented for the company.
“We found 1,500 to 2,000 trees that were completely down and needed to be cleared,” he said. “You can’t trim for that. You have to realize the magnitude of this storm. Even when the storm was downgraded to a tropical storm, we had winds as high as 60 to 70 mph,” West said.
The company’s policy prohibits tree and wire work from happening once winds speeds measure 40 mph.
Elected officials heard complaints about the two utility companies’ tree-trimming policies all over the state.
In Oxford, both First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers and state trooper Sgt. Dan Semosky mentioned it to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal last week, who was in the Valley inspecting Irene damage.
Drayton-Rogers said that rural Oxford has a canopy of trees over some of its roads. The utility companies seem to trim to a certain height, which is frustrating, Drayton-Rogers told Blumenthal.
“In the long run, they are not doing us any favors by only cutting to a certain height when our trees are twice that size,” Drayton-Rogers said.
Semosky said he’d like to see the utility, cable and telephone companies coordinate their tree-trimming efforts.
“There may be something that is about to fall into a CL&P wire, but (another utility) won’t touch that because that’s not their wire,” Semosky said. “It’s amazing how they do that. They can’t really get together to get the job done.”
Blumenthal listened and compared the situation to old trees that fall on the Merritt Parkway.
“People have actually died as a result of the older trees,” Blumenthal said.
CL&P’s decision to take a fresh look at its tree limb trimming program is an encouraging first step, said state Rep. Len Greene Jr., R-Seymour.
He also wants the utility company to re-examine its infrastructure going forward.
“Utility poles being what they are, it is technology that was great 100 years ago. Maybe we need to move toward infrastructure replacement,” Greene said.
Specifically, Greene said underground utilities need to become the norm, rather than the exception, in the state.
“I would hope their plans to prevent large loss of power includes a more comprehensive plan that just their tree trimming program,” Greene said. “I take that as an encouraging start, but they should expand on that and potentially look at the future of the infrastructure itself.”
Click here to read about CL&P’s tree policies.
The video below shows Semosky and Drayton-Rogers talking to Blumenthal about the issue:
