Lawmaker to tackle stray voltage
11:17 PM 8/17/03
Tom Sheehan State government reporter

A western Wisconsin legislator said she will introduce "an electrical bill of rights" in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling upholding a $1.2 million award to farmers who sued an electric utility after their cattle became sick.

The bill would require Wisconsin electric utilities and cooperatives to eliminate all "objectionable flows" of electrical current by 2012 or face fines of up to $1 million each.

Electricity providers failing to fix within 30 days specific problems reported by customers also could face triple damages if they lose in court as soon as the bill becomes law, if that happens, said Mark Kunkel, an attorney with the Legislative Reference Bureau. The bill would apply to any property, not just farms, Kunkel said.

Rep. Barbara Gronemus, D-Whitehall, said her bill would help clean up electrical system problems for farmers and others who may suffer health-related problems possibly caused by electrical exposure.

The head of a utility trade association, however, says the plan lacks sound legal or scientific foundation. Expensive legal settlements or fines also could hike utility rates, said Bill Skewes, executive director of the Wisconsin Utilities Association.

The bill will get a public hearing, said Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, who heads the Assembly's Energy and Utilities committee. But Jensen said he wants more information, particularly from experts on the topic, before deciding if he supports the plan.

"When you hear these stories from people who claim to be harmed by stray voltage, it's heartbreaking and it needs to be addressed," said Jensen. Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court upheld a circuit court ruling in favor of Waupaca County dairy farmers Allan and Beverly Hoffmann. The couple said their cattle became sick after being exposed to electricity that entered the ground through faulty underground wiring installed by Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Electric Power Co.

WEPCO was found negligent, even though levels of electrical current never exceeded state Public Service Commission safety standards for stray voltage. Stray voltage, as defined by the PSC, requires that measurable current in excess of a state standard pass directly through an animal.

Attorneys for the Hoffmanns argued their cattle were exposed to a non-traditional form of stray voltage known as ground current. Ground current, which is not regulated by the PSC, is electricity present in the earth that might not pass directly through an animal.

"I think that court decision finally pinpointed the fact that these are problems and that they can be resolved," Gronemus said.

Gronemus may be overstepping bounds without having clear legal and scientific standing, however, said Bill Skewes, executive director of the Wisconsin Utilities Association.

While the Supreme Court upheld the Hoffmanns award, it also found the circuit court judge overstepped his bounds by ordering WEPCO to install an ungrounded electrical distribution system to resolve the problem. The PSC, WEPCO and an electrical workers union testified that such a system posed a safety hazard.

"I see a whole lot of questions about constitutionality and the separation of powers. I don't know that the Legislature gets to go out and turn around a court decision made by another branch of government," Skewes said.

Gronemus' bill would leave little guidance for utilities, which rely on the PSC's stray voltage standard to assess electrical problems on farms, Skewes said.

The PSC has no standard for ground current, and "is not currently looking at regulating any other form of stray voltage," said Linda Barth, a spokeswoman for the PSC. The agency has not taken a position on Gronemus' proposal, Barth added.

"Objectionable flow of current" is defined in the bill as a steady flow of electricity that lasts 5 seconds or more on a grounding conductor or other conductor that doesn't normally carry electrical current. The catch-all phrase addresses other forms of electrical exposure, which Gronemus refers to as electrical pollution.

Utilities and the PSC largely ignore other possible electrical problems that don't fit the regulatory agency's definition of stray voltage, Gronemus said. If electrical pollution were visible as spilled oil for example, such problems would be addressed immediately, she said.

"If it's electrical, it's like it's not even there," Gronemus said.

Utilities are the main sponsors of research on ground current, which hasn't been proven to cause health problems in animals or people, Skewes said. Utilities also have paid millions of dollars to fix stray voltage problems, he said. Madison-based Alliant Energy, for example, will spend $2.6 million total on its farm re-wiring program this year and next, Skewes said. The PSC estimates about half of all stray voltage cases are the result of problems on the utilities' side of the electrical distribution system; the other half are caused by problems on the farmers' side of the system.