Citizens Make Voices Heard on Golden to Mars Power Lines at BOS Meeting
By Katie Northcott
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
On Tuesday, March 17, over 30 Loudoun County residents chose to spend part of their St. Patrick’s Day speaking to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.
The majority of citizen comments concerned Dominion Energy’s proposed Golden to Mars transmission line. The line is the third and final step of Dominion Energy’s Loudoun Reliability Loop, a 500/230 kilovolt transmission line loop near Ashburn.
The first part of the project was approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission on April 5, 2023. The second was approved on Feb. 19, 2026. The Golden to Mars project was submitted for approval on March 28, 2025 and is currently under review. The third step in this project has received significant community pushback due to its proximity to residential and school property.
“Can we afford to introduce another potential health burden into the communities where we live? Where we raise our children and care for our seniors?” Loudoun County resident Bhavna Chendok said at the March 17 meeting. “I understand that this infrastructure is needed. We are not opposing the project, but asking that it be built responsibly.”
At a business meeting on Jan. 21, 2025, the BOS voted to affirm that its preferred alignment of the Golden to Mars transmission line was “Route 4”. Part of Route 4 runs east of Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School and Rock Ridge High School and eventually proceeds south near the edge of a floodplain near homes in Loudoun Valley Estates.
According to the Jan. 21 staff report, Dominion Energy said that running the lines underground would not be “feasible.” Since then, residents of Loudoun Valley Estates have asked Dominion to reconsider the feasibility of underground lines, showing up to BOS and SCC meetings in large numbers.
“The community has come together in a way I don’t think Loudoun’s ever seen before,” said Victor Block, Loudoun Valley Estates HOA President, speaking at the March 17 meeting. “Thousands of families, people who have never attended a public meeting, never written a public comment, never spoken in public showed up.”
Before the public comment session on March 17, Supervisor Koran Saines (D-Sterling) reminded the SCC would make the decision about the project, not the BOS.
“The Board has no authority to approve or deny the project. That holds with the State Corporation Commission,” Saines said. “All of us on this dais continue to support undergrounding transmission routes, as we have from day one. Now [an undergrounding] bill is in front of the governor. She has 30 days to sign the bill, veto the bill, … or make amendments and edits and send it back to the General Assembly for more discussion.”
The bill Saines referred to is HB1487. If signed, it will allow up to four qualifying transmission line projects “to be constructed in whole or in part underground as part of the pilot program for underground transmission lines and to provide an expedited review of any such application.”
Block thanked the Board for its support and argued that the Dominion had conducted itself improperly and had manipulated the situation. Loudoun County resident Madison Taggart agreed.
“As Dominion’s own records show, this timeline has been manufactured. Jacob Rosenberg, Dominion’s project lead, testified under oath that Golden to Mars was ‘the most complex segment’ of their entire portfolio. He explained how that complexity ‘informed the order of operations,’” Taggart said. “Translate that: Dominion knew this segment was hard, and they filed it last on purpose.”
Taggart said that Dominion had manufactured a “crisis” that left the company insufficient time to explore undergrounding the lines. Taggart said that Dominion could have filed earlier to have the project approved and would have had more time to conduct underground feasibility studies.
“Instead, they created artificial urgency by filing last. Then, pointed to that urgency as a reason to skip underground,” Taggart said. “That’s not engineering; that’s a manufactured crisis.”
Block urged the Board not to allow any above ground power lines because it would validate Dominion’s alleged manipulation.
“The way Dominion has conducted themselves throughout this process is wrong, and this county cannot signal that that’s acceptable. Not for this project, not for the next one,” Block said.
Loudoun Valley Estates resident Bryan Turner asked the Board to accept an easement that could help protect Loudoun Valley Estates. Easements are created when an individual gives someone else the right to use their property in a defined way.
“Our community is prepared to do its part. We will support the county by entering into the necessary easements,” Turner said. “We respectfully ask the board to move forward with securing all eight easements and ensure that Loudoun County, not outside interests retain control over whether power lines go underground or do not go in at all.”
Former Virginia Delegate Geary Higgins urged the Board to construct a coherent energy policy. He said if the BOS and the state itself failed to adopt a coherent policy, they would deal with this same problem “over and over again”.
“We don’t have a coherent energy policy. As a result, we’ve been relying on renewables, which has caused us to be the largest state importing power in the nation at 40%,” Higgins said. “All these wires that are being strung all over the place are being strung to bring power to Virginia because we don’t generate our own power.”
In addition to speakers addressing the transmission line project, multiple public speakers at the March 17 meeting addressed upcoming proposed policy changes to Western Loudoun rural zoning policies.
Tia Earman spoke on behalf of the Piedmont Environmental Council about how the upcoming changes might impact those living on gravel roads. She said that the changes might allow breweries to put unrealistic traffic burdens on gravel roads as breweries will be allowed to host unlimited events with unlimited guests.
Bridgette Smith of Loudoun County Wineries and Wine Growers Association encouraged the BOS to support the proposed changes that would allow private parties and events to be classified as an accessory use for craft beverage businesses. This would mean the events would not face limitations provided they are consistent with Virginia’s alcohol laws.
“Private parties and events are not a side business for Loudoun’s craft beverage producers. They’re essential to how we sell wine,” Smith said. “Between 80 and 85% of craft beverage businesses in Western Loudoun have private events space for weddings and corporate gatherings, and 60-65% hold ticketed events.”
Loudoun County resident Nancy Deliso agreed.
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