Politics & Government

Tree Cutting Prompts Pushback for Pepco

Residents up in arms about plan to remove trees in Bethesda utility easement.

Bethesda residents say Pepco plans to cut nearly 80 trees in an easement near Pooks Hill Road, and they say they're ready to fight.

Local officials are fielding a barrage of constituent complaints that the utility is cutting or trimming trees too aggressively, Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner said.

“I don’t want to get in the way of reliability, but I’m not looking for Paul Bunyan to come to town either,” said Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac. “We’re trying to find a middle ground between Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed.”

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Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey confirmed the utility is managing vegetation in the easement, including removals, pruning and re-planting. But he wouldn’t confirm the number of trees being removed.

“The scope of the vegetation management will be determined by the work that needs to be done and we will not speculate further,” Hainey wrote in an email to Patch.

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After mounting frustration with Pepco’s service, the Maryland Public Service Commission fined the utility $1 million last year after ruling it failed to maintain its lines for years. Vegetation management is under way across the county as part of Pepco’s five-year, $250 million reliability enhancement plan, which is mandated by reliability standards set forth by the PSC, Hainey said.

Berliner, and County Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park introduced legislation last month that would require Pepco to get written consent from a homeowner before removing trees on private property.   

Th proposed legislation would require Pepco to ensure homeowners understand their rights when it comes to Pepco requesting to cut trees on their land, Berliner said. It also would give Pepco a recourse when a homeowner refuses to allow Pepco to remove a tree the utility feels is hazardous to reliability, said Michael Faden, a senior council legislative attorney.

Under the bill, the county could assess whether a potentially hazardous tree on private property should come down, Faden said.

The proposed legislation would not apply to cutting or trimming in utility easements. Bethesda residents' complaints center on Pepco's plan to cut a large amount of mature trees in an easement on land owned by the Whitley Park Condominium Association near Pooks Hill Road.

Pepco has met several times with the community there after  that called for cutting nearly 80 trees, said Mary Edwards, who owns a home near the easement.

“Our feeling is that they’re cutting everything down to make it easier for them, so they don’t have to come back in the future,” Edwards said. “There’s debate on how far some trees actually are from the wire, but they’re cutting all of it, because technically they have the right.”

Hainey confirmed that Pepco representatives and foresters met with members of the public to listen to their concerns. 

"Based on those meetings, we revised our plans and communicated the changes to the community,” Hainey said, though he would not specify how Pepco’s plans changed following the meetings.

Edwards, however, said the community was initially informed 83 trees would be removed, a number that has since been reduced to 77.

The work, expected to wrap up in several weeks, is part of Pepco’s reliability enhancement plan, Hainey said.

Adam Scherr, who lives near the easement, said he believes Pepco’s vegetation management practices should be regulated. Though the proposed legislation wouldn’t apply to cutting in easements, “anything they’re doing to curb something being done in a nonsensical fashion would be beneficial,” Scherr said.

“In my mind, it’s borderline criminal to go ahead and start chopping trees down and ruining the beautiful landscape, and doing it under the guise of, ‘We have to protect the lines.’”

What do you think about Pepco's vegetation management practices? Is the utility cutting too aggressively or is trimming and cutting needed to enhance reliability? Should Pepco's vegetation management be regulated? Tell us in the comments.


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