Dominion has to rethink their vegetation management

Dear Editor:

Once again, Dominion Energy has demonstrated why it may deserve the reputation as the Commonwealth’s worst corporate citizen. Everyone riding around major highways and rural roads can see the dreadful blight of Dominion’s “vegetation management.”

The ubiquitous haphazard brown out of plants along our roads and roadsides results from Dominion’s spraying herbicide supposedly along their right of way and “generally” not in managed lawn areas.

According to their forester assigned to the project in western Loudoun, they need to remove growth which would impact their poles and lines.

Clearly, very little of what is now burned-out growth: grass and bushes, would never impact the poles or lines, and some victim growth shrubbery and wild flowers may well have been planted by owners on property lines near roadsides to mark corners or block lights.

The whole project raises questions. What authority approves the use of herbicide? What kind of permission is Dominion required to have and what landowner/consumer input is sought?

Why, is killing off roadside growth necessary in summer when the blight is especially unsightly against the abundance of green? If maintenance is necessary, why can it not be manual, confined to sites where it might impact service?

With the damage done, is there any way for dominion to make restitution? Yes, with their machines and manpower, they can cut off and remove all the brown out visible from the roads. They are quite capable of such an operation; they were requested to use manual maintenance at least in the historic and rural roadway districts of Loudoun, but the forester was unfamiliar with such designations.

The question now remains who can persuade/convince/require Dominion to try to erase at least the most obvious of the blight, the dead growth stunning residents and tourists alike in some of the most scenic areas of Loudoun and elsewhere.

Obviously, landowner calls to the number Dominion sent out via postcard had no effect because it was the wrong number. Are there any public officials who take on the task of correcting this outrage and preventing it in the future?

Most residents think we know the answer. What a shame that a powerhouse like Dominion would be the kind of corporate citizen that willfully violates the environment.

Anna Dees, Middleburg