hankyoreh

South Cheungcheong Province

By Song Ho-kyun, staff reporter and Seo Young-ji, reporter 　

The 765kV high-voltage electricity transmission tower that is behind the fracas in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province is not the only one in South Korea. In fact, there are already 902 electricity transmission towers throughout the country, with electricity lines running a total of 457.3km.

The largest number of the towers, 333 - are in Gangwon Province. Next is South Chungcheong Province with 265 towers, and Gyeonggi Province with 252. In some cases, the residents of these areas have lived with the electric lines for more than 10 years.

At first, locals just thought of them as little more than devices for transmitting electricity. Some even believed that they were a precursor of development in their villages.

But when Hankyoreh reporters visited Hoengseong in Gangwon Province, Dangjin in South Chungcheong Province, and Anseong in Gyeonggi Province on Oct. 10 and 11, they found that the lives of the people near the electric towers had been blown to smithereens. Perhaps these villages show us the future of Miryang, where the residents are still carrying on their lonely struggle.

“Every time I think about the tower, I lose the will to keep going,” said Kim Geum-im, 75, her eyes red from crying. “I guess I’ll just have to give it all up and leave.”

Geum-im lives in Gyoro Village 2 in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province. Barley 40 meters from her vegetable patch looms an intimidating 765kV electricity tower.

“There is this constant humming sound, kind of like what frogs or goblins might make,” Geum-im said. “It‘s so annoying that I can’t stand it.”

“The sound is particularly bad on days when it rains or when it‘s overcast. And since the power line runs parallel with my house, I can’t even sleep when I lie down at night.”

Three kilometers away from Gyoro No. 2 Village is the Dangjin Power Plant. Currently, all eight of the plant‘s generators are in operation.

Two power lines start at the power station and pass by the village, making a rough V shape. One line is 765kV, the other 154kV.

There are 10 electricity transmission towers going in one direction, and 12 in the other. From the village community center, it is about 300 meters to the 765kV line, and 400 meters to the 154kV line.

And by 2015, Dongbu Power, a private company, is planning to build two additional thermoelectric power generators and run yet another 365kV power line by the village.

“Things are much worse in our village than in Miryang,” complained Lim Gwan-taek, 55, the head of the village. “They’re planning to build even more towers. I guess they just want us all to die.”

Residents said that the number of cancer patients in the area has increased since construction was completed on the electricity transmission towers in 1999. Of the approximately 150 people living in 80 households in the village, nine are currently battling cancer. Villagers say that around 30 residents have died of cancer over the past 10 years.

Last year, Kim Geum-im underwent an operation for lung cancer. “It seems to me that the electric tower must be to blame,” she said. “In the past, the old people in the village were all healthy. The number of people with cancer has gone up all of a sudden.”

In May 2012, Kim Myung-gak, 76, was diagnosed with lung cancer. His house is located about 400 meters away from a 765kV electric pylon.

“I work for about eight hours a day in a vegetable patch about 100 meters from the electric tower,” Kim Myung-gak explains. “I was torn up inside when they told me I had cancer.”

“I thought the only problem I would face would be a drop in the value of my property. I guess in the end it’s going to take everything I’ve got.”

This reporter went on a tour of the village with Kim Myung-gak, an elderly grandfather. Just as he said, someone had cancer in nearly every other house.

“See the church over there?” Kim Myung-gak said. “The pastor’s wife died of lung cancer two years ago.”

“Mr. Kim lives in that house with the blue roof. His wife died of lung cancer, and she wasn’t even 60 years old. Then there’s the guy in the white house right in front of us. He had surgery for cancer a little while back. . .” In a desperate tone of voice, Kim repeated the word, “cancer…cancer” while pointing throughout the village.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy commissioned a study on how high-voltage power lines in South Korea affect the health of people living near them. According to the study, the risk of contracting cancer was higher for residents in the 67 regions with 154kV/345kV power lines than in other regions.

But despite the statistical results of the study, the ministry came to the controversial conclusion that there was no correlation between power lines and cancer incidence.

The Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) still maintains its position that there is no proof that high-voltage power lines pose a health risk.

Employee training manual published by KEPCO in August was meant to persuade residents in disputed areas by relating how the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in 2007 that the harmfulness of power lines had not been demonstrated. The material also noted that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified the carcinogenic level of power lines at 2B, the same level as coffee, fish sauce, and bracken (a herb commonly eaten in Korea).

The residents living near power lines do not believe the explanations of the government and KEPCO, since they are at odds with their own experiences.

One such person is Kim Jong-pil, 46, who lives in Yudong No. 1 Village in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province.

“There’s a livestock shed right underneath a 765kV power line, and there are more cases of piglets or calves becoming sick and dying,” Jong-pil said.

The village head here is Kim Young-ha. “KEPCO says there isn’t a problem, but four residents have died of cancer since the towers went up, and right now there is one person who is barely 52 years old who came down with lung cancer.”

“The only problem is we don’t have any material evidence, so we can’t prove anything,” Young-ha said with frustration.

The Hankyoreh reporters also met with a resident of Byeongjibang No. 1 Village in Heongseong County surnamed Jeong, 56.

“The first person who came down with lung cancer in my family was my father. He died five years ago,” Jeong said. “Since then, I get enraged when I even just look at one of those electricity transmission towers.”

“I can’t sleep either because of that buzzing sound, and I get headaches every day.”

Jeong’s house is 150 meters away from a 765kV electric tower.

The electricity transmission towers near Cheongil and Gapcheon townships in Hoengseong County were built in 2003. Disagreements have also broken out between villagers in this area because of the towers. There are different ideas about how to use the compensation money the villages received from KEPCO.

“The people in Byeongjibang No. 1 Village took active part in the demonstrations against the power lines, while the people in Byeongjibang No. 2 Village just watched,” said a person surnamed Shin, 69, who was head of Byeongjibang No. 1 Village at the time. “There was a serious dispute when the 140 million won in compensation was divided equally between the two villages.”

“The KEPCO boys in charge of convincing the villagers to accept the reparations were real pros,” recalled a resident in [his] 50s from Cheongil Township in Hoengseong County.

“They started with the residents who lived furthest from the towers and won them over first. They soothed our fears by promising to buy us farm equipment, and they sweet talked us as they bought us drinks in the evening.”

The troubles have not ended for the two villages near the power lines, who must deal with inadequate compensation, a lingering sense of unease, and the harm staring them in the face.

Son Chun-ung, 66, who lives in Sadong Village near the Sinanseong Substation at Gosam Township Anseong, Gyeonggi Province was diagnosed with urethral cancer two years ago and had one of his kidneys removed. Son had worked at the substation as a security guard for four years.

“I never think that I got sick because of the power lines, and I still don’t,” Son Chun-ung said. “I just figure I got cancer because I’m getting old. I’m not even planning on asking KEPCO about it.”

“But you know, it’s a little strange. When I was working at the substation, I would see birds dying every day. Some birds fell down dead, and others were still alive but would just flutter around on the ground.”

“I just don’t know,” Son Chun-ung said. “If I tried to move, I don’t know if my land would sell. And even if I went somewhere else, it’s not like I would have a way to support myself. . .”

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