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In today’s St.PPP about a two week old transmission line bomb scare (WARNING: KIDS, THIS IS A FEDERAL OFFENSE — DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME…):

Power line company offers reward

The Associated Press
Article Launched: 08/29/2007 10:00:26 AM CDT

UNDATED—The company building a power line from Duluth, Minnesota, to Wausau, Wisconsin, is offering a reward to help find those responsible for leaving homemade explosives along the construction site.

American Transmission Company project manager Pete Holtz says they’re concerned about the safety of their workers and are offering a $1,000 reward.

The 210-mile line has long been the target of protests of property owners from Wausau to Superior and Duluth.

Fifteen to 25 soda bottles filled with explosive chemicals were found by a power line worker about two weeks ago in Wisconsin’s Douglas County. The bomb squad from the Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing was called to the scene to take care of the bottles.

The FBI office in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is working to identify the chemicals.

The 420 million dollar line is expected to be finished later this year.

Here’s more from KJBR, a Duluth TV station:

Bomb Scare Forces Powerline Crews To Evacuate Construction Site

KBJR-TV
August 17, 2007

Duluth MN / Superior WI, MN – Several bombs have been found in and around the controversial Arrowhead Weston Power Line construction site. The project has seen its share of protests from people who are opposed to the power line, but officials are not pointing any fingers right now.

Posted 9:06 a.m. – Several bombs have been found in and around the controversial Arrowhead Weston Power Line construction site.

As Dan Hanger reports, authorities are not taking this lightly.

“Well, luckily it wasn’t serious in the fact no one got hurt or killed, but that was the potential harm,” Sheriff Tom Dalbec, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

A potentially deadly situation on Lyman Lake Road in Parkland, Wisconsin was prevented Tuesday.

Several chemical bombs were found there, along a mile stretch of the Arrowhead–Weston Power Line construction site.

This is video nearby.

“The intent is to cause injury, harm, potentially death.”

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, actively investigating, searching for the person or people who put these dangerous homemade explosives together.

“There are statutes,” said Raymond Greco, FBI. “If anybody causes damage to or destroys an energy facility, it’s a federal offense, so the power lines fall into that statute.”

Officials say the construction crews working on the project had just set the foundation for the power poles.

Those crews were evacuated.

No one was hurt.

And they aren’t allowed back for now because the sheriff’s office says there may be more bombs.

“We don’t know if someone’s intent was to make a statement against the power line or if they were to make a statement against government in general or if it potentially was maybe some kids screwing around having fun.”

The power line project has seen its share of protests from people who feel it threatens the environment and their homesteads, but officials are not pointing any fingers right now.

Anyone who knows anything about this case is asked to call the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department.

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