If It Can Happen to Me, It Can Happen to Anybody

By Vicky Hu

Last June—on literal Friday the 13^th—my phone rang with unimaginable news.

A representative from Dominion Energy told me that one of the proposed routes for the new Golden to Mars 500-kilovolt transmission line could place a 185-foot transmission pole in my backyard.

I remember driving home in a panicked rage, knocking on my neighbors’ doors begging that they know something of that horrific call, frantically researching the legalese to even process what I heard, then numbly staring out the window toward the forest behind my home. 

For 25 years, I worked and lived in Loudoun Valley Estates with my family. We didn’t buy our house because it was the biggest or the newest. We bought it because of what stood behind it—a beautiful wooded stream valley filled with mature trees, wildlife and the peace that so many families come to Loudoun County hoping to find.

Those trees have been the backdrop to our lives.

We raised our children here. We cared for aging parents here. We celebrated birthdays, holidays and quiet evenings on our patio overlooking Broad Run Stream Valley. Every season brought something new—birds returning in the spring, brilliant leaves in the fall, snow blanketing the woods in winter. It has never simply been our backyard. It has been part of our family.

Now I am being told it can simply disappear.

People talk about transmission corridors, easements, right-of-way widths and 500-kilovolt lines. They also discuss the economic benefits of data centers, the need for technology. I understand those discussions are necessary. I have never argued that new infrastructure should never be built, or that data centers shouldn’t exist.

But there is another side to this conversation.

Behind every proposed route is someone’s home.

Someone’s memories.

Someone’s children.

Someone’s retirement.

Someone who spent decades believing the community they invested in would remain the sanctuary they worked so hard to create, just like me.

When I learned that hundreds of trees surrounding my home could be removed and that a massive transmission structure could stand only yards from my patio, it was like my heart had been torn out.

I kept asking myself the same question.

How could this happen?

The more I learned about the project, I realized something even more troubling.

This is not just about my property.

The proposed routes affect neighborhoods throughout eastern Loudoun. They pass near schools where our children learn and play. They threaten one of the last remaining wildlife corridors in the Broad Run Stream Valley. 

They raise difficult questions about how we balance the region’s growing energy demands with the responsibility to protect established communities and the natural resources that make Loudoun County such a special place to live.

Reasonable people can disagree about where new infrastructure should go.

What should never happen is for homeowners to feel powerless while decisions of this magnitude are made around them rather than with them. 

The Data Center got their say, Dominion Energy got their say, and so did the county and school board. Everyone but homeowners got to speak on the fate of their homes.

For over a year, my neighbors and I have attended meetings, studied maps, asked questions and searched for alternatives. We have worked with elected officials, environmental advocates and community leaders who believe there are routes that would better protect neighborhoods, schools and environmentally sensitive land.

This has never been about stopping progress. It has always been about asking whether there is a better way.

I know there are people who see a map with colored lines crossing a page.

I see the woods where my children grew up.

I see the stream valley where we walked together as a family.

I see the place we believed would always be home.

That is why I continue to fight.

Not only for my family, but for every family that could one day receive the same phone call I did.

Because once something like this happens, you realize how quickly the life you built can change.

If decisions of this scale can reshape one family’s community and backyard after twenty-five years, they can reshape yours as well.

That is why I ask for your support.

Our legal effort is about more than one property. It is about protecting neighborhoods, schools, environmental resources and the rights of homeowners to have a meaningful voice in decisions that will affect their families for generations.

If you believe our communities deserve that voice, I hope you will consider contributing to our legal fund: Help Vicky Fight to Save Her Home from Dominion Power Lines. Every contribution, regardless of the amount, helps us continue this fight on behalf of everyone who calls Loudoun County home. 

When I stood in my backyard with neighbors, reporters and community leaders, I spoke from the heart.

Those words remain just as true today as they were then.

If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.

Vicky Hu has worked and lived in Loudoun Valley Estates for 25 years. One of Dominion Energy’s proposed transmission line routes would place a 185-foot transmission structure yards from her home. She is part of the ongoing legal effort challenging the proposed routing. Here is the link to the GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/396775475.