'I promise you I will fight you tooth and nail' | Community fights back against proposed power line project that would span three counties

BRUNSWICK, Maryland — It was a packed house inside the Brunswick Volunteer Fire Department Thursday night, as the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) held their third and final information session on a proposed power line project.

The proposed 70-mile transmission system is called the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. Several proposed routes cut across several  Maryland counties from near the Pennsylvania line to the Potomac River.

PSEG began the packed event, with a presentation, but less than 20 minutes in the crowd began shouting and demanding that they move ahead to the Q&A.

"How close would you be willing to live to a half a million transmission volt," said one of the community members to the four PSEG employees on the stage.

"Everyone relies on electricity but this isn't the right way," yelled another person.

In July PSEG,  who is in charge of the project, held public information sessions in the three counties within the study area, and also posted a survey online to gather public comment.

According to their website, their team reviewed and analyzed more than 5,300 comments from the public and made some adjustments based on the comments they got.

The power company says electricity demands are growing, and that this transmission line is the way to go.

But the crowd strongly disagreed.

"You're doing it for the money," yelled one person.

"I promise you I will fight you tooth and nail . Do not step foot on my property," said another woman.

Many in the room shared that they're farmers, and that putting a transmission line smack in the middle of their property hurts their livelihood and puts their families in danger.

"It's everything it's been in my family for years. We just planted a vineyard," said  Steve Goertemiller who runs Big White Barn.

"We moved to Frederick County about 20 years ago from Rockville because we wanted to live in this beautiful Sugarloaf region," said Betsy McFarland.

She showed WUSA9 how the proposed plan would run right through the middle of her property.

The power line would cut through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties and the issues vocalized by the crowd, weren't narrowed down to just one thing.

"Farms don't want to be destroyed. The eminent domain thing is incredibly poisonous to this politically. You're talking about clearcutting a 71 mile long strip through three counties over streams protected land preserved farms," said Steve Black, the president of the preservation group Sugarloaf Alliance.

When the crowd questioned PSEG why they chose the path they did, one of the four PSEG employees on the stage said "the route that we chose had significantly less impact to homes within 500 feet".

The company says this project would help with the growing electricity needs in Maryland, but some say this isn't the solution.

"Extension chords across our backyards are not ever the good answer. If we would practice the art of pause wait until those technologies catch up. We can have better energy solutions for everyone in our community that are clean sustainable and not archaic," said Kim Duvall.

Maryland’s Public Service Commission will decide whether to permit the power line proposal,

PSEG says they hope to have the project up and running by 2027, but those at Thursday night's meeting say they'll make it their mission to keep that from happening and plan to fight it every step of the way.

"When you say every step of the way, people aren't joking. Every single property is going to lawyer up. Every one of these eminent domain cases is going to court. Every one, over and over and over. For 71 miles, something like 400 properties, and they're going to get fought every step of the way," said Black.