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As dead cow No. 79 lay stiff in a tractor scoop one recent cold morning on Greg Siewert’s dairy farm, it was pretty clear in the nearby sick barn which would become No. 80.
Wobbly on three legs, the fourth swollen and kinked at her side, one cow stared out below stooped shoulders, her black and white coat hanging dull and low from a grim row of ribs. But Siewert contends it’s not disease that’s killing his cows. It’s electricity. Specifically, it’s something called “stray voltage” from a nearby Xcel power line. He has filed a $4 million lawsuit in Wabasha County District Court against Xcel. The farmers’ suits blame overloaded power lines, some strung 70 years ago that now have to carry power to all the refrigerators, clothes dryers and TVs in houses built since. Stray voltage is a real phenomenon. New York City, with its aging infrastructure and growing electrical needs, sees the problem often. Consolidated Edison recorded 1,214 incidents of stray voltage in 2005. Among the deaths attributed to it was a woman stepping on a metal plate and a dog standing on wet cement. Dairy farmers complain about two kinds of stray voltage. One is extra spillover from overworked power lines onto the farm’s own electrical system, where the two connect. The other, more controversial, is ground current. Electricity needs to run in a complete circuit. If it can’t return to its source over the utility’s lines — for ill repair or lack of capacity — it takes to the earth through the lines’ grounding rods.
As an engineering student, I remember watching a training video of a man standing under 500 Kv power lines, and the stray voltage lighting up a small bulb in his hand. Possibly what Tesla had in mind with wireless power transmission.
SHOCKING!!!
well if i were him i’d forget the cows and take in the strays..
imagine collecting this stray voltage and reselling back to the utility companies….
bet you can get more than $4mil…and no lawyer fees….
Ok, so he says he knows its not a disease. And what background in veterinary medicine does this farmer have?
Should score about 7 or “Fishy” on Dvorak’s BS meter.
Egg,
and what do you know about Electrical induction?? and wet ground??
How would you like to stand on Ground that has a 110 charge or GREATER all your life?
Should score about 7 or “Fishy” on Dvorak’s BS meter.
Nah, it’s something that rural power companies have been aware of since day 1. They also do a lot to mitigate it, sometimes unsucessfully. These lawsuits have actually been happening for decades, and it (“it” being stray voltage, not lawsuits) are a real problem. I haven’t heard of cattle dying, but even a few stray volts can make a cows milk production stop.
Ditto what #5 said. It’s a real problem, and it came to a head in Wisconsin in the 80’s and early 90’s due to the clout farmers have in that state. It’s just taking a longer time to get resolved everywhere else.
Power lines have an electrostatic field around them. If you stand in it you can provide a path to the ground, but while the voltage differential developed is high enough to light a florecent bulb the current flow to do damage is minimal.
This is about as factual as the radiation from your cell phone cooking your brain. But then, when I think about the twits driving their cars with cell phones stuck to their ears, hmmm… Maybe
Oh Bullshit!
It’s the only response I can think of for this story.
but while the voltage differential developed is high enough to light a florecent bulb the current flow to do damage is minimal.
“Volts jolt – mils kill”
Exactly how many microamps do you recon your heart can withstand without doing something “odd”?
Power transmission, like a lot of electrical engineering (and computer engineering) is a little bit of a black art and pretty much always has compromises. Power lines have inductance and capacitance, and both must be balanced by careful spacing between wires, between poles, etc. for everything to work to specifications. I CAN get out of whack. (I used to do consulting for rural electric co-ops; I ran into this cow-stuff frequently.)
Maybe they should teach the cows to not pee near powerlines.
Just the power company’s way of tasing.
New York State
Public Service Commission
Three Empire State Plaza
Albany, New York 12223
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Jerry and I am a former employee of ECSM Utility Contractors. We tested outside electrical facilities for stray voltage in New York for National Grid as directed by the NYS Public Service Commission, or so everyone thinks. The fact is we simply made sure that the annual report given to the NYSPSC appeared to be in compliance. The system used to check the accuracy of our work is easy to fool. Our stray voltage testers verify that each outside electrical facility was tested for stray voltage by recording its GPS location. That is the only evidence that anyone was even at that electrical facility. The rest of the report for each outside electrical facility can be falsified with little chance of it being caught. I’ll explain how that is possible. ECSM Testers shoot the GPS location of each outside facility then test for stray voltage and take the appropriate action thereafter. ECSM Auditors then confirm the ECSM Testers’ results by checking 5% of the outside electrical facilities marked as accessible and 100% of the outside facilities marked inaccessible. Then National Grid Auditors confirm ECSM Auditors’ results by checking 5% of their accessible outside electrical facilities and 100% of their inaccessible facilities. Finally, NYSPSC Auditors confirm 5% of the National Grid Auditors’ accessible outside electrical facilities and 100% of their inaccessible.
For Example: If an ECSM Tester checks 8000 outside electrical facilities within any given timeframe, then the ECSM Auditor verifies 400 of those facilities (8000 x 0.05 = 400). Next the National Grid Auditor checks 20 of the ECSM Auditor’s facilities (400 x 0.05 = 20). Lastly, the NYSPSC Auditor confirms one (1) of the National Grid Auditor’s facilities (20 x 0.05 = 1). So out of every 8000 outside electrical facilities marked accessible by ECSM Stray Voltage Testers, the NYSPSC confirms that only one (1) outside electrical facility is actually safe for the public. Therefore there is only a 0.0125% probable chance that ECSM personnel will get caught lying to public about the safety of the outside electrical facilities in the regions of NYS that they are responsible for inspecting.
I am using a pen name to protect my Identity. I have received threats from former follow employees of ECSM Utility Contractors.
Sincerely
Jerry ‘The Rent Collector’ Osgood
jerry.osgood@gmail.com
Dear John Q Public:
I used to be a Stray Voltage Tester, so I am comfortable in saying the following. It is more efficient and therefore less costly for the Testers to lie about the SV detected at each outside electrical facility. Seems ridiculous? The NYSPSC regulations regarding SV created work for unskilled/low skilled electrical workers in NYS. However these people work for subcontractors like ECSM Utility Contractors. It’s appealing for the electric companies to use subcontractors because the overall cost is cheaper. Likewise these subcontractors are given an opportunity to make a small fortune so long as they keep the electric company happy. Now ask yourself what’s going to keep the electric company happy? If the subcontractors want their bids with the electric companies renewed after the annual report to the NYSPSC has been released then they are going to do whatever they need to do to keep the electric companies happy. They ARE going to LIE. Stray Voltage measuring less than 1 volt is automatically ignored. Stray Voltage measured between 1 volt and 4 volts is documented; the electrical facility is roped off with yellow hazard tape and then ignored. Stray Voltage measuring from 4 volts to 8 volts is reduced by half before being recorded by order of the tester’s supervisor, then roped off with yellow hazard tape and ignored. WHY? Because the subcontractor mandates (upon itself) that any electrical facility with 4 or more volts of stray voltage must be confirmed by a supervisor prior to notifying the electric company. WHY? Because it costs too much for the electric company to make these confirmations using their own employees and it makes the subcontractor look bad if their people are wrong. Then why lie? Because the frequency of positive SV tests with a measured voltage of 1 or more volts is so high that the supervisors would spend all their time confirming Stray Voltage readings which means the annual report would never get finished on time. Thus the electric companies become unhappy with the subcontractors if they comply with the NYSPSC regulations.
Take a ride out and look for telephone poles with yellow hazard tape on them, then check for SV. I won’t disappoint you. I can be reached for comment 24/7 at the below address and phone numbers.
Sincerely,
Jerry ‘The Extended Car Warranty Telemarketer’ Osgood
518-746-9373, 22 Gates Ave., Fort Edward, NY 12828
800-219-7425 or 508-947-4418
Vehicle Services, Inc.
http://telemarketinglawsuit.com/car-warranty-telemarketing-scam/800-219-74258002197425-and-580-822-33865808823386-solved
If you have some evidence that ECSM contractors falsified reports why don’t you take it to the PUC in NY? If someone was threatening me I would go to the police not a blog. Ecsm is not powerful enough that the police wouldn’t help you.