For Information Contact:

Brian Adey
 798-5800

Declaring the proposed New York Region Interconnect power line proposal “a public health emergency waiting to happen,” Oneida County Executive Joseph A. Griffo today announced that he has directed the Oneida County Health Department to work in cooperation with the local effort to investigate the potential health impacts of the project, particularly its route through densely populated areas in and around the city of Utica.

“This project breaks new ground in raising the threat level of a power line project by taking a high-voltage DC line and routing it directly through heavily populated areas,” Griffo said. “We need to work to amass the evidence we need to make a compelling case that this project will cause health hazards to the people of Utica and those suburbs where the line goes through residential and commercial areas.”

Griffo said that although the County will be working with other counties to block the line, Oneida County’s situation is unique because of the line’s routing through such a densely populated area. “We need to fight back by pulling together as a team, pulling together the facts from research and reports, and making a strong case that this project is a potential health disaster we must stop,” Griffo said. “This is one component of our efforts.”

Griffo said acting health director Nicholas DeRosa, who formerly headed the Environmental Health division of the Health Department, will be the Department’s point person for the project and will assign the appropriate staff to work with local residents’ groups and the county coalition. “We need to find scientifically valid research that we can use as evidence that this project presents a clear danger to the people of Utica and its suburbs,” Griffo said. “I am asking that citizen activists who have the ability to help researching via the Internet work with us so that we have as much information as possible.”

Griffo said residents should contact the Health Department at 798-6400, or email at publichealth@ocgov.net.

“To block this proposal, we need to build the strongest possible case,” Griffo said. “The Health Department has the expertise to coordinate this phase of our effort and work with our community activists so that we have a case that will be able to block this project on the merits of our facts.”