Lawmakers weigh rules to stop utility’s tree killing Pepco workers are unnecessarily killing scores of trees as they cut them away from power lines, prompting Montgomery County lawmakers to weigh new rules that would clamp down on the utility’s chainsaws.
Joe Rigby, the utility company’s chief executive officer, is “the Paul Bunyan of trees,”
Montgomery County Councilman Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda, said recently.
In an incident last month south of Poolesville, Pepco chopped down an entire area of hackberry trees — a native species — many of which were more than 100 years old, said Dolores Milmoe, Audubon’s Maryland Conservation associate.
Pepco Regional President Thomas Graham said the trees may have been cut because they were dead, dying or at risk of falling on a nearby power line.
But Milmoe said that was not the case.
“They’re being too draconian,” she said. “They’re doing this to show the public that they mean business, but they’re taking it way too far.”
Pepco officials say they’re not going far enough, though, and want the county to give the electric company authority to cut even more trees as it tries to improve its reliability.
The company’s poor customer satisfaction recently earned it the title of “most hated” company in America, and it has been ranked in the bottom quartile nationally for unreliable service for the last five years.
Graham has asked Berliner, chairman of the council’s Transportation and Energy Committee, repeatedly over the last several months “to consider legislation that would provide electric utilities greater authority to perform tree-trimming measures.”
Before cutting a tree on private property, Pepco must get the permission of the property owner, but lately residents have been getting in the way. They tell Pepco not to cut certain limbs or ask that Pepco wait to trim until they’re home from work, Graham said.
“In order for us to meet standards, we are going to have to be allowed to do the work that we feel has to be done.”
But Berliner said Graham is barking up the wrong tree.
“The community that I represent feels that Pepco’s tree-trimming processes are grossly inadequate,” he said. “They butcher trees rather than trim them.”
Longtime Chevy Chase resident Don McDowell is worried that the deer and other wildlife he sees regularly will die off or leave the area as the trees are hacked away.
“[Pepco workers] seem to just go and savage away,” said McDowell, who has lived in Chevy Chase for 35 years.
Councilman Marc Elrich, D-at large and a Takoma Park resident, said he is considering tree-trimming regulations — whether through an ordinance, a resolution or some other form of legislation — but will wait until after the energy committee hears from Pepco, as well as local arborists and community members, about the issue on Monday. Some municipalities, such as Takoma Park, already have more stringent tree-trimming regulations.
“If you cut 25 percent of the crown out of it … you’re essentially killing the tree,” said Dale Tibbits, Elrich’s chief of staff.
Meanwhile, other residents — like Rockville resident Deanne Knapp — have written to county officials saying that trees that need to be trimmed haven’t been touched. Silver Spring resident Joseph Santo said he called Pepco to ask them to cut down a tree but couldn’t get an answer through the automated phone system.
To help the utility make its case, Graham has requested a public forum, which Berliner has granted him in his committee meeting Monday.
“If we’re not able to [cut back tree growth] and that tree falls, it could take out service for hundreds of your neighbors,” Graham said. “We’re all in this together.”
