Staff for the West Virginia Public Service Commission has raised concerns over recently proposed route changes for the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link Project, a high-voltage electrical line across several states.

They are concerned that five proposed changes to the route have come after a public hearing period and just weeks ahead of an evidentiary hearing.

Their objections could result in a delay or in dismissal of the application.

The Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link, often shorted to MARL, is a proposed 107.5-mile, 500-kilovolt high-voltage power line planned to run from Dunkard Township, Pa., through parts of West Virginia including Monongalia, Preston, Mineral, Hampshire, and Jefferson counties and down to Gore, Va.

The project is being considered after PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, identified reliability issues resulting from a loss of power generation sources, support for new power sources and additional electricity demand in the region.

Developers NextEra Energy Transmission  submitted an official siting application to the West Virginia PSC on Jan. 30.

The final public comment hearing was June 11.

The project’s evidentiary hearing is scheduled to begin on Oct. 26. The deadline to file direct testimony is even sooner, Sept. 8.

On July 30, lawyers for NextEra Energy Transmission filed a route revision supplement, describing proposed changes as minor.

Several of the changes had come at the request of potentially affected landowners who had advocated for relocating proposed structures on the original route.

Another was in response to concerns by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources about forest effects on White Horse Mountain Wildlife Management Area in Hampshire County. And another resulted from an engineering review that identified concerns about the line crossing existing transmission.

The five revisions are estimated to increase cost by about a million dollars.

Moreover, the changes would affect three landowners who had not been previously informed.

The PSC staff disagrees with the suggestion that the route changes are minor.

Staff attorneys and engineers, in new memorandums filed with the PSC, say the newly affected landowners missed the June public hearings and now have limited time to consume a nearly 4,000-page application and respond before the upcoming deadlines.

The filings contend NextEra “expects laypeople who are impacted by the line to be able to determine the best way to advocate for their interest in less than 39 days. Thirty-nine days does not allow the New Affected Landowners to fully participate in this case and to receive the due process rights to which every impacted landowner is entitled.”

And staff contends that the revisions deny the commission adequate time to perform necessary field investigations and technical reviews before a final decision.

So the staff recommends either suspending the legal proceedings for two months or dismissing the application entirely for lack of completeness.

The staff concluded that the proposed changes “constitute a material modification of the project that requires the case to be tolled for a minimum of 60 days to allow the New Affected Landowners the opportunity to fully participate in this proceeding and have due process, and to allow Staff to fully investigate and analyze these changes.”

The organization West Virginians Against Transmission Injustice said the concerns identified by PSC staff warrant dismissal of the application — or at least the delay.

“Now the PSC’s own professional Staff is raising serious concerns about whether the application is complete and whether it can be adequately reviewed under the existing schedule,” said Tony Campbell, president of the organization.