Heather Curtis
WMAL.com

POTOMAC, MD — (WMAL) Potomac residents say PEPCO’s policy of cutting down trees along a right-of-way in town is ruining their neighborhood. In March they lost a lawsuit to stop the utility from cutting down trees on their properties, but this week they were able to get PEPCO to agree to hold off for now while it explores other options for vegetation management around power lines.

PEPCO spokesman Sean Kelly said they decided to impose the temporary moratorium after listening to the concerns residents had.

“We thought it was necessary to not continue the work while we have an opportunity to process that information, evaluate it and move forward,” Kelly said.

PEPCO started cutting down trees along right-of-ways after the Maryland Public Service Commission said the utility needed to do something to improve power transmission. If a tree branch falls on a line, it can knock out power for thousands of customers.

Potomac resident Sam Tucker said before the temporary compromise was made, the utility told him and his neighbors it had a right to cut down the trees, so it did it.

“I thought the approach should be, if a tree needs to come down, if it’s diseased or it imposes a potential imminent threat to the power lines or to people on the property, then it makes sense to cut em down, not just because they have a right to cut it down,” Tucker said. He added many of the trees on private property are only 8 feet tall, too short to pose a threat to the power lines.

Kelly said state law dictates a minimum clearance for power lines that PEPCO must obey.

“So even if it’s a 6 to 8 foot tree, if it’s close or underneath one of these power lines, we have to, in some cases, trim that tree or remove it in order to protect that service,” Kelly said.

He added PEPCO will explore its options internally and then get together with a spokesman for the homeowners before finalizing anything.

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