BAD WEATHER PUTS UE TREE TRIMMING BEHIND SCHEDULE

Take one large soft maple tree with large, brittle limbs, and lots of heavy leaves. Mix in a heavy downpour of rain from a passing thunderstorm. Stir well with a 20-40 mph wind from the storm. Locate near high-voltage power lines, and you've got a sure-fire recipe for trouble.

Just ask Wally Garner. He's the line clearance supervisor for Union Electric Co. of Cape Girardeau.

Garner's job - in essence - is to make sure trees and limbs do not come in contact with Union Electric's high-voltage power lines.

Garner said that keeping the trees and limbs trimmed along the routes of UE power lines is a difficult task, but this year's weather has made it even harder.

Bad weather and ice early this year, followed by an unusually wet spring, put Garner's tree-trimming crews way behind schedule. That means a lot of overgrown trees and limbs could cause a lot of extra work and expense for Union Electric, and interruption of service to electrical customers when summer thunderstorms develop in this area.

A private contractor, The Shade Tree Company of Fenton, does all of Union Electric's trimming work in Southeast Missouri. The crews work from a schedule and map developed each year by Garner, based on tree-growing seasons.

"We normally trim trees on a three-year growing cycle," he explained. "We've found from experience that during the first two years of the growing cycle, problems with trees and limbs are lower than the third year, so we try to schedule the work on a three-year cycle."

But Garner said this year trimming crews got behind schedule because of bad weather and ice during late winter, and rainy weather this spring.

"Since Jan. 1, there were 99 days when our crews could not work because of icy or wet weather," Garner said. "I was 126 days short of my goal for the first six months of this year. In other words, on 99 of those 126 days, the weather prevented the crews from trimming trees in our area."

He noted the wet spring and warm weather also accelerated tree and limb growth, adding to the problem. "We have some softwood trees that grew over five feet in the past six months," Garner said.

He said the weather has improved as far as the rain is concerned, but the intense heat and humidity has slowed the work down. However, Garner is optimistic the crews can catch up before the end of the year.

"Right now, much of the tree-trimming work in the north half of Cape Girardeau has been completed, but we still have all of the south end of the city, south of New Madrid Street, to cut and trim," Garner said.

Garner said Union Electric has a priority list for which trees are trimmed.

The first priority is trees located under or around UE's 34,500-volt distribution lines that serve the entire city and other parts of the local UE service area, he said. "We have to clear the 34.5-kV lines first because if we lose one of them to trees or limbs during a storm, we've lost a good section of town," Garner explained.

He said the 34.5-kV lines feed UE transformer substations throughout the city. From the substations, smaller, 12,500-volt lines branch out to the utility pole transformers that actually supply power to residential and commercial customers.

Union Electric spends millions of dollars each year to keep trees cut and trimmed in its Missouri service areas, but Garner said the alternative is time-consuming and expensive damage to poles, power lines, transformers, and substations. And that doesn't include the inconvenience and irritation incurred by UE customers when the power goes off on a hot, humid day or night when a tree or limb falls against the lines.

"Overall, it's a lot safer and cheaper to trim trees in the daytime on a regular schedule, when you can see what you're doing, than to have to send someone out on a dark, rainy night after a storm to cut a tree off a pole or a limb off the line to restore service," he said.

Garner said softwood trees, such as soft maples, locust, mulberry, and cottonwood, are most susceptible to breaking from wind and rain. On the other hand, the hardwood trees, such as oaks, are very sturdy and can withstand wind and rain, if properly trimmed.

Garner said when trouble occurs, UE's customers often provide valuable help to restore service. "Many customers will call in to report a tree or limb down on our wires, or is about to fall on a pole or wires," he said. "In addition, they often direct our service crews to the area faster than we can find it on our own."

Garner encourages anyone who spots what could be a potential problem with a tree or tree limb to call the UE service center on South Minnesota.

He also has a word of advice for those who have purchased or built a home in a new subdivision, and want to plant trees around their house.

"We urge them to look around the property before they plant, and consider where those small trees will be in 25-30 years," Garner said. "Don't plant trees that will grow tall under or near utility lines. A little planning now will avoid a lot of problems in the future when those small trees get into high-voltage utility lines. Some trees just do not look very nice after they have to be topped or cut so they will not interfere with our electric service."

Garner said Union Electric can offer suggestions on where to plant trees so they will not interfere with the electric lines.

Garner also clarified Union Electric's policy of trimming trees along a customer's service line.

"We do not do any trimming or cutting on the customer's property," he said. "We will send a serviceman out during normal business hours to cut off the power and drop the service line so a private contractor hired by the customer can trim and cut trees along our service drop line."

Garner said the exception to that policy is tree limbs that have fallen onto the service line after a storm. "If it is feasible, we will cut the limb and leave it for the property owner to dispose of so electric service is not interrupted, or can be restored," he explained.

Before today's digital electronic equipment came along, Garner said, minor interruptions in electric service that occurred during a storm would never be noticed. But with today's VCRs, computers, and other sensitive electronic equipment, any momentary interruption of current will cause them to lose their memory.

Garner said it's a price customers must pay to make sure expensive equipment, transformers and transmission lines are not damaged when something happens to interrupt service.

"If it were not for the safety features in our substations and switching centers that are the source of these temporary interruptions, serious problems that occur in one area would spread throughout the entire system, possibly causing a widespread outage," Garner said. "When you see the lights flicker or the power go off for a second or so, it means our safety devices are relaying to prevent additional damage to our equipment, and reduce the number of customers who may be affected by a service interruption."