Loup Power District to build substation in residential area

President and CEO of Loup, Neal Suess, commented.

"We really did not have any plans to move that substation, but with the flooding and the damage that occurred to the substation site that we have in St. Edward, we needed to make the decision quickly to move that and move forward with the plans to move that substation to a new location."

Kayla and John Keck, who live just 99-feet away from where the substation is set to be built, have been working since May to persuade the town as well as Loup Power to find a new location.

"There's enough health concerns that I think we just need to keep it out of a residential area," John says. "Just to air on the side of safety and caution, and I think definitely with the property value is a concern for the whole town. This is a neighborhood full of kids...we counted at least 12 kids under age, complete minors, and some of them very young that are riding their bikes and playing in the area here."

"There's always been over the years a number of thoughts and concerns with the fact that higher voltage substations and higher voltage lines can create electromagnetic fields that can create cancer. There have been studies that have shown that it does...there's also been a number of studies that show that this doesn't happen," he says.

"This is on relatively high voltage, 115 thousand volts and higher lines... we're talking here 34.5 thousand volt substation. We have substations like this in and around our area and the fears are really unsubstantiated this time, but we do understand that people have those fears and concerns and we try to alleviate those to the extent we can."