Letter to the Editor: The ghost of Tocks Island resides in Shawnee-Walker

Pike County residents have every reason to oppose the Shawnee-Walker High-Voltage Transmission Line, and that opposition is rooted not only in present concerns, but in the lessons of our own history.

During the Tocks Island Dam era, sweeping plans were imposed on this region with little regard for the communities forced to bear the consequences. Land was condemned, corridors were assembled, and Dingmans Ferry was effectively dismantled as the project hollowed out the community around it. Although the dam itself was never built, the damage it caused was real and lasting.

That is why Shawnee-Walker feels like the ghost of Tocks Island. Not because it is the same project, but because it appears to rely on corridors acquired in anticipation of that deeply destructive era. Easements assembled decades ago are now reappearing as the foundation for a modern high-voltage expansion that many residents never expected, especially so close to home, in some cases just 45 feet away. Many homeowners were blindsided, unaware these aging easements even existed because they predate their ownership by generations.

At a time when transmission expansion is increasingly tied to outside industrial demand, including the growing needs of data centers, residents are right to ask whether Pike County is once again being asked to sacrifice for someone else’s priorities. We should learn from the past and oppose Shawnee-Walker.

Taylor Meise
Milford