Letter To The Editor: Eversource Misleading On Cause Of Outages

To the Editor:

In a recent newspaper article, Eversource blamed the Greenwich Tree Ordinance that protects our community’s trees from unnecessary removal for the many power outages here.

In the recent storms, a surprising percentage of power line failures were caused by falling power poles without intervention of falling trees! Few of the trees that did fall on power lines were trees on public property.

Greenwich has for at least 3 years conducted aggressive programs of tree pruning and removal along public rights of way. The number of trees that that fell along public roads in Greenwich as a result of the recent storms was about 1/3 of the number that fell as a result of major storms in 2010.

Eversource unfairly blames Greenwich tree ordinance claiming undue restriction on contractors hired by Eversource to remove or prune trees that endanger power lines.

The ordinance simply requires Eversource to provide Town Tree Warden notice and opportunity to inspect trees before contractors attack them to confirm that they present a risk to power lines.

The real problem is the failure of Eversource to bury power lines as has Con Ed in Westchester ( where failures are much rarer) and to cooperate with the Town in notifying the location and progress of its contractors in restoring power lines so Town Tree staff can promptly assist, which it is prohibited from doing where a power line is down. And Eversource contractors do not remove downed trees and branches after
they reinstall power lines, leaving that for the Town, without notifying the Town when its staff can proceed with such clearing.

Greenwich does not have an ordinance that gives Town a voice re trees on private property.

Very truly yours,
Peter Malkin, Chairman, Greenwich Tree Conservancy