Saturday, November 29, 2008

Vandals strike co-op

Officials estimate damage will eclipse $10,000 mark

Gerald Garner Jr. El Defensor Chieftain Editor,ggarner@dchieftain.com

A high-powered rifle, several hundred customers without power and an estimated $10,000 worth of damage.

Such was the scenario earlier this week as Socorro Electric Cooperative officials worked diligently to repair vandalized power lines south of Socorro.

The excitement began Tuesday, Nov. 25 when co-op officials received a call that a circuit was out and an estimated 500 members were in the dark.

The outage affected homes south of Socorro to San Antonio and from Luis Lopez back to the Socorro Municipal Airport.

Although crews were able to restore power within about two hours, the cause of the blackout remained a mystery — at least until some daylight was shined on the situation.

"David (Montoya) sent a crew out this morning to see if they could determine what happened," SEC engineering operations manager Richard Lopez said Wednesday, Nov. 26. "A man from the San Antonio approached the crew and reported that he'd seen two or three large flashes of light to the southwest just prior to the outage. He said it looked like extremely large electrical arc."

So Montoya — who serves as the co-op's line superintendent — had his crew patrol the area and soon discovered why the blackout occurred.

"We found more than a half mile of line had been vandalized with a high-powered rifle," Montoya said. "(The vandals) were apparently shooting lines as well as insulators."

In the vicinity, co-op staffers found several spent bullet casings, prompting an immediate call to the Socorro County Sheriff's Department.

Lopez said Vaiza found additional casings at the scene and was processing them as evidence Wednesday morning.

Shortly thereafter, Lopez said crews — conducting further area patrols — discovered a 3-mile stretch of lines where the copper grounds were cut.

"It also appears someone was stealing the copper grounds as well," he said.

Lopez explained that in addition to the cost of replacing the grounding element, public safety was potentially compromised.

"Those copper grounds are what attract lightning away from the poles, the lines and the transformers," he said. "It's a pretty critical protective element of our system."

Lopez and Montoya say the expect damage estimates to top $10,000.

'It could have been worse'

While gun-wielding vandals and a lack of protection against lightning are cause enough for concern, both Lopez and Montoya said Tuesday night's incident presented another health risk altogether.

"We've got some customers in that area who have special medical needs," Lopez said. "Some of those folks use oxygen, which requires electricity and some use nebulizers. People need to realize that power outages can have greater and graver consequences than mere inconvenience."

Montoya, elaborated, saying that the vandals could have taken out lines that feed railroad crossing signs and fiber optic lines — some of which service area airports.

"While it was pretty bad, it could have been much worse," Montoya said.

Praise for response

Lopez heaped praise on the co-op's standby crews, who were quick to remedy the problem.

"All of our employees are fantastic — especially our standby crews," he said. "It took a real team effort to fix the situation and we're all very proud of the work they did and the work they do throughout the year."

Lopez said the co-op has two standby crews that are on call 24-7, 365 days a year.

Reward offered

Lopez said he cannot believe that someone — who is likely served by the cooperative and its power lines — would willingly destroy property that they benefit from.

"This vandalism isn't a victimless crime. In fact, every member of the co-op is affected by acts like these. It's disheartening to see people destroy what basically amounts to their own property," Lopez said.

To that end, Lopez, the co-op and the Socorro County Sheriff's Department are keen to bring the perpetrator(s) to justice. To help facilitate this goal, Lopez said the co-op is offering a reward. Call 575-835-0560.

E-mail this story Printer-friendly version