Farmers rally against power lines

An army of land owners is forming to stop the building of giant electricity pylons from just north of Taupo to South Auckland.

Putaruru accountant and farmer David Graham is only half joking when he describes himself as troop commander of 10 platoons of land owners along the proposed route.

Each platoon has been ordered to raise $100,000 in preparation for a legal battle to stop Transpower building the 220km chain of towers across their land.

Mr Graham said land owners accepted Transpower had to do something to keep power flowing to Auckland, which almost ran out of capacity last week.

But they were horrified by the national grid company's plan to build 480 pylons up to 70m high in a line from the Whakamaru substation, near Mangakino, to Otahuhu.

Mr Graham said his members believed the $500 million project would hinder their land use, destroy land values and risked damaging the health of anyone living under the pylons.

"They will get a fight from the people on the land - come hell or high water there will be a fight."

Stock agents in Tirau were donating $1 for every animal sold, while townies and others not directly affected by the proposed route were writing cheques to support the cause.

"That's a measure of the concern in the region really, that people are willing to dig that deep into their own pockets."

Mr Graham, who spends two days a week working on the campaign, said the group was also looking for alternative options to take to the Electricity Commission, which would ultimately decide if the massive project went ahead.

Land owners agreed that the current pylons needed upgrading but Transpower had not looked seriously enough at alternatives.

Farmers were particularly concerned about the capital value of their properties, the environmental impacts, health and safety issues and destruction of the country's clean green image.

He admitted the health issues were harder to prove - there are unsubstantiated claims that radiation from pylons can cause cancer - but still worrying for many people.

"Would you live under them?" he asked. " I bet you wouldn't and I bet the Transpower guys wouldn't either."

Mr Graham said a less intrusive proposal would probably be accepted much more readily, because people did accept that Auckland was the powerhouse of the country and needed to keep running.

He said Transpower could examine upgrading the existing towers to take more DC lines, look at a power generation source closer to Auckland, seek energy efficiency savings and investigate altering lines to make up the shortage.

"Auckland has gas running down most streets with only half the houses in them hooked up to it."