WASHINGTON — Pepco’s aggressive tree trimming and removal near power lines has ignited bitter opposition in neighborhoods, particularly in Potomac and Rockville, Maryland. But Pepco insists it must cut trees to keep power flowing after severe weather.
Birgit Stuart, of St. Michael’s, Maryland, doesn’t like the way Pepco crews went after the trees in her mother’s Rockville backyard this week.
“It was their tactics and their attitude and the fact that they were terrorizing an 83-year-old widow, in not allowing her in her own backyard to watch what they were doing,” Stuart says.
Pepco has easement rights and the Maryland State Public Service Commission has ordered that Pepco transmission lines be clear of trees and limbs in order to boost electric service reliability, particularly after severe storms.
But Stuart says the tree-cutting crew that showed up at her mom’s house Monday morning included at least two security officers who, she charges, acted like bullies.
“A female kept smirking at me and then lifted up her vest to show me the gun she was wearing … and another person … started flexing his muscles at me; it was a very tense situation,” Stuart says.
While not commenting on the specific incident involving security, a Pepco spokesman says security at tree-cutting work sites is needed to protect customers and workers because of past hostile and reckless behavior.
Stuart’s mom pleaded with the tree cutters to spare the three maple and oak trees in her backyard, which she insisted were healthy and no threat to the power lines.
“She is upset because I think she believes she was not treated fairly, no one was willing to listen to her. They were not even willing to look at the arborist’s report and testing she had done on the tree,” Stuart says.
But Pepco says all three trees had significant decay and were too close to the power lines. So the trees came down.
Stuart and some Pepco residential customers in Rockville and Potomac have been up in arms over what they say is excessive and unnecessary tree cutting.
“I believe that they are very concerned about how the public perceives their lack of reliability and this is a very visible way that they can say they’re making it reliable when it’s really not helping at all,” Stuart says.
But Pepco says the tree trimming and removal near transmission lines is not only necessary but mandated by the PSC, after a series of severe storms caused prolonged power outages beginning in 2010.
Pepco says it had about 15,000 customers without power after Wednesday’s severe early-morning storms, and almost all the outages were weather-related, caused by fallen limbs and trees.
