May 18, 2026
By Local News Staff
A newly formed organization of local landowners has filed a lawsuit in Vernon County Circuit Court to halt the proposed MariBell Transmission Project. The Coalition Against Maribel 765 Inc filed the legal action against Dairyland Power Cooperative and GridLiance Heartland aiming to secure an injunction to stop the 139 mile power line. The complaint argues the massive infrastructure will irreparably harm the unglaciated Driftless landscape and devalue properties while offering no local benefit.
Genoa resident Tim Woodhouse serves as the president of the coalition and explained that the group formed after residents realized they needed a coordinated legal strategy. Woodhouse noted that early community meetings prompted neighbors to pool their resources and hire specialized eminent domain attorneys.
“We recognize that to have greater impact the impacted landowners needed to do a little something more,” said Woodhouse. “This is way out of all of our league as far as the legal aspects of things.”
Woodhouse said his motivation to lead the legal fight stems from the severe threat the 200 foot steel towers pose to his own family and livelihood. He runs a farm with nearly 200 beef cattle and said the proposed primary and alternative routes would devastate his home and the surrounding agricultural land.
“My home and my farm is very near the proposal,” said Woodhouse. “I rent a number of farms where I pasture my cattle that are impacted by this and then the secondary route cuts into my sister’s properties.”
He noted that the line is proposed to run directly between his home and his cousin’s home. Woodhouse said he felt he had no choice but to push forward.
“If they build it where they propose to build it and they cannot move it, it is really going to destroy me anyway,” said Woodhouse.
The lawsuit outlines three main legal claims including anticipatory nuisance strict liability and anticipatory nuisance negligence. The coalition is asking the court to declare that the project will create a private nuisance by interfering with the landowners’ use of their property. The legal complaint also argues that the high voltage lines emit annoying buzzing sounds and raise widespread fears of stray voltage and disease.
The legal filing specifically challenges the underlying necessity of the 765 kilovolt line claiming it is designed solely to funnel power to technology companies. The complaint asks the court to declare that the project offers no local benefit and is driven by the desire to supply electricity to massive data centers.
Beyond the visual and property impacts Woodhouse raised significant concerns about the environmental hazards of the construction process itself. Having worked as a town patrolman for 21 years he warned that the heavy construction equipment would tear up local roads that were previously built using coal fly ash as fill. He also noted that the ground around the local town shop is predominantly coal fly ash fill situated right next to the town well prompting the town board to recently agree to test the water.
“Most people think that black stuff underneath the seal coat is asphalt and it is not,” said Woodhouse. “If they built Maribel my feeling is that the construction is going to destroy our roads as much as maybe a flood would, and then here we go with this fly ash again.”
The coalition president expressed deep frustration with the utility developers for failing to engage meaningfully or transparently with the residents who stand to lose the most. He stated that utility representatives have offered no written responses to his concerns and instead only call his personal cell phone or offer warnings about his public comments.
Woodhouse who has also served as a captain on the Genoa-Harmony fire department for 26 years and responded to the historic control room fire at the Genoa power plant said the rural community is constantly being asked to shoulder dangerous industrial burdens. He questioned how many hazards one small community should be forced to endure.
“I wrote to them asking if they understand what they are doing to the people in this community,” said Woodhouse. “We have got nuclear waste right at our feet and we have got coal fly ash under our roads and high voltage transmission lines where nobody really knows what that is going to do to us.”
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