Code of Vermont Rules › Agency 30 - PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION › Sub-Agency 000 - GENERAL › Chapter 013 - MAINTENANCE OF ELECTRIC UTILITY RIGHTS OF WAY › Section 30 000 013 - MAINTENANCE OF ELECTRIC UTILITY RIGHTS OF WAY

Current through June, 2024
SUBCHAPTER 3.600 MAINTENANCE OF
			 ELECTRIC UTILITY RIGHTS OF WAY
3.610
			 ACCOUNTING
3.611 Separate
			 Accounts
Each company shall keep a separate account of all
				expenses incurred in maintaining transmission or distribution rights
				of way. The accounts shall be kept in such a way that the following
				information can readily be extracted:
(A) Transmission maintenance costs
			 can be segregated from distribution maintenance costs and expressed
			 in dollars per brush-acre; transmission and distribution shall be
			 defined for these rules the same as for FERC Form 1
			 reporting.
(B) Estimates
			 of the average per acre costs for foliar, stem treatment, and hand
			 cutting, expressed in dollars per brush-acre.
This information shall be filed with the Board and
				the Department of Public Service at the same time as the FERC Form 1
				or the Department of Public Service annual report is filed.
3.612
			 Consistency
This rule shall not be construed to require the use
				of accounts inconsistent with those mandated by any state or federal
				regulatory body.
3.620 NOTICE
3.621 Personal Notification
(A) Persons owning or occupying
			 land lying within 1,000 feet of a utility right of way may request of
			 the utility, in writing, that they be notified individually by mail
			 during the year, but not less than 30 days before, any treatment of
			 the line with herbicides.
(B) The landowner or resident is
			 responsible for contacting the company, in writing before February
			 15, to request placement on the mailing list.
(C) The company may, as an
			 alternative, place all residents of a town in which herbicides are to
			 be used on its mailing list.
(D) The company may assure itself
			 that a requesting party meets the qualifications of paragraph A, and
			 may drop from its list a person determined not to meet those
			 qualifications.
(E) The
			 utility shall annually report to the Board and the Department of
			 Public Service the number of written inquiries received concerning
			 notification and the number of notifications actually sent.
(F) After each maintenance cycle
			 the utility may destroy its mailing list and begin anew; if it does
			 so, it shall include as part of its notice provided in subsection (A)
			 a coupon for the recipient to return for entry on the new
			 list.
(G) Inadvertent
			 failure to comply with this section shall not raise any presumption
			 of negligence in any civil action.
3.622 Information Sheet
(A) Each year the Vermont Electric
			 Power Company, Inc., (VELCO) shall prepare an information sheet
			 explaining, in neutral terms:
(1)
			 Methods of herbicide application used in Vermont.
(2) Types of rights of way which
			 are treated.
(3) A method
			 to identify the owner of a utility line by examining the poles or
			 other landmarks.
(4) How
			 to contact distribution utilities for further information.
(5) How to determine whether a
			 particular line is to be treated.
(6) The right to notice by mail as
			 set forth in Section 3.621 hereof.
(7) The right to alternative
			 treatment methods as set forth in Section 3.640 hereof.
(8) The address and telephone
			 numbers, including any toll-free numbers, of the Consumer Affairs
			 Division of the Department of Public Service and of the Plant
			 Industry Section of the Department of Agriculture.
(9) The duty of each landowner or
			 resident to make the utility aware of the location of a potentially
			 affected water supply, and of any other environmentally sensitive
			 area where herbicide application ought to be avoided.
(10) The fact that herbicide
			 applications may start as early as April 1, so that requests to
			 utilities for notice by mail must, unless waived by the utility, be
			 made by February 15 in order to be placed on the mailing
			 list.
(B) The
			 information sheet shall be submitted to the Board and the Department
			 of Public Service for review by November 1.
(C) The information sheet shall be
			 distributed in camera-ready form to the distribution utilities by
			 December 1 of each year.
(D) The distribution utilities
			 shall print and mail the information sheet to each of their
			 customers, either separately or as a bill stuffer, before February 1
			 of each year. If editorial comments are added by the utility, they
			 shall be separated from the information sheet content and identified
			 as such.
(E) If by
			 January 1 of any year a distribution utility files a certificate with
			 the Board and the Department of Public Service which states that no
			 herbicides will be used in that year within that utility's service
			 territory, either by that utility or by any other utility with rights
			 of way within that service territory, the provision of subsection (D)
			 above shall be waived for that year. The Board may require the
			 utility to substantiate its certification.
3.623 Published Notification
(A) VELCO shall also prepare
			 newspaper advertising containing the information required by Section
			 3.622 above.
(B) Once
			 each week for four weeks in January, the advertising shall be placed
			 in those newspapers listed in Appendix B of the Department of
			 Agriculture's Regulations for the Control of Pesticides, or any
			 successor list which is used for similar purposes.
3.624 Coupon; Costs
(A) The mailer required by Section
			 3.622 and the newspaper advertisements required by Section 3.623
			 shall each include a coupon for use by a person wishing to exercise
			 the notice privilege created by Section 3.621.
(B) VELCO shall bear the costs of
			 developing and distributing the information sheet to the distribution
			 utilities as required by Section 3.622 and of creating and causing to
			 be published the advertising required by Section
			 3.
			 623; provided, however, that VELCO shall be compensated by any other
			 transmission-only company doing business in Vermont, in the
			 proportion that such company's line mileage bears to the total
			 transmission line mileage in the State.
3.630 PLANS
3.631 Plan Required
Each utility, including VELCO, shall submit to the
				Board and the Department a long-term vegetation management plan which
				should include:
(A) A
			 general statement of policy and goals;
(B) Identification of a
			 biologically sound schedule to achieve long-term objectives,
			 including a specified time interval between original control and
			 subsequent scheduled control;
(C) Description and identification
			 of the species to be eliminated or controlled, versus the species to
			 be left, in various types of vegetative settings;
(D) List and description of
			 techniques and conditions under which given mechanical, chemical, and
			 other methods would normally be considered appropriate;
(E) Procedure for identifying,
			 evaluating, reporting, and responding to right of way maintenance
			 problems;
(F)
			 Establishment of clearance standards sought, based on voltage of
			 transmission line, and the part of the right of way to be controlled;
			 i.e., central strip, side strip, high visibility, other;
(G) Establishment of standards and
			 practices for:
(1)
			 Wetlands;
(2)
			 Wildlife;
(3) Erosion
			 control;
(4) Aesthetic
			 considerations;
(H) Establishment of right of way
			 inspection and monitoring standards including frequency of
			 inspection, manner of inspections, and criteria. Standards shall
			 relate to at least the following matters: heights of road-crossing
			 screens or ideal clearance levels, danger trees, evidence of
			 tree-conductor contact, species identification, conditions of
			 sensitive areas, notation of condition of specially or experimentally
			 treated areas;
(I)
			 Retention of records to coincide with maintenance cycle of the
			 company including right of way inspection dates, maintenance
			 schedules, and maintenance activities;
(J) Provisions for periodically
			 reviewing, evaluating, and revising the long-range plan, and the time
			 interval for such revisions;
(K) Provision to assure contractor
			 accountability in implementing the plan.
3.632 Exemption
If a utility believes that it should not be required
				to have such a plan in place, or that only a brief summary is
				required because its lines are located solely in urban or other clear
				areas, it may file instead a request for exemption with the Board,
				with a copy to the Department of Public Service.
3.633 Filing
Plans shall be filed with the Board and the
				Department of Public Service.
3.634 Consistency
It shall be no objection to a plan that it includes
				provisions to comply with the requirements of some other state or
				federal agency.
3.640 ALTERNATIVES
3.641 Alternatives Provided
(A)
(1) When a landowner whose property
			 is traversed by a utility right of way, the maintenance of which is
			 governed by these regulations, requests of a company in writing that
			 it refrain from using herbicides in clearing the right of way, the
			 company shall initially offer to perform the work using stump
			 treatment or stem injection only. If the landowner accepts this level
			 of herbicide use, the company shall perform the maintenance work
			 using stump treatment or stem injection methods, free of charge to
			 the landowner. If the landowner refuses the use of any herbicide
			 whatsoever, the company shall be paid the rate determined in
			 subsection (B) below if the right of way is for transmission or
			 subtransmission line; but no payment shall be required if the right
			 of way is for distribution line.
(2) The landowner's written request
			 must be delivered to the company not less than 14 days before any
			 scheduled use of herbicides.
(3) The terms "stump treatment or
			 stem injection methods" shall, respectively, have the meanings
			 defined in the regulations of the Vermont Department of Agriculture,
			 that is, the placement of herbicide on the cut surface of a stump or
			 inside a wound made with a cutting tool.
(4) Payment required under this
			 subsection shall be made to the company not less than 7 days before
			 the scheduled use of herbicides.
(B) A landowner who elects not to
			 permit any herbicides under subsection (A) above shall pay a charge
			 of $ 30 toward the company's administrative costs. A separate charge
			 shall apply for each non-contiguous property with respect to which
			 the election is made; however, a farm or a non-corporate landowner
			 which is not a governmental entity shall not be required to pay more
			 than $ 120 to any one utility in any one year.
(C) The utility company shall
			 perform maintenance in the manner required under (A) or (B) above,
			 provided, however, that the company may require each landowner
			 requesting an alternative method to indicate the location and
			 boundaries of the portion of the right of way concerned. The company
			 may require the landowner or the landowner's agent to mark the
			 property in a distinctive fashion or to attend an on-site meeting
			 with designated maintenance personnel.
(D) For purposes of this Section
			 3.641, "landowner" shall include the owner of land which abuts a
			 distribution right of way located along a public highway.
(E) Each utility shall prepare and
			 send to the Board and the Department by June 15 of each year a
			 statement showing the number of persons who have made an initial
			 request under subsection (A) above, the number who have agreed to
			 stump treatment or stem injection methods, and the number who have
			 refused all use of herbicides.
The listing need only cover those rights of way which
				are chemically treated during the year of submission.