House near high voltage power lines

I grew up under some of these. They're harmless.

My undergraduate degree was also in physics. So I repeat. They're harmless.

Hope you get and enjoy the home.

I'm not an expert on power lines, but I can tell you a couple of things that may help you decision.  1.  As I hope you are aware there is a WHOLE lot of click-bait and otherwise unreliably motivated "information" out there about a great many things.  Vaccines do not cause autism.  Jet planes are not spreading chemtrails, and SARS-COV-2 is not a bio-weapon that escaped from a secret lab.  Yet people still believe those things because science can only establish that science has not found any evidence to support them.  It can't conclusively prove a negative, allowing conspiracy theories and misinformation to flourish.  Hopefully you will bear that in mind in making your decision.  2. I can tell you one thing about them from personal knowledge.  For a number of years I worked for a law firm that negotiated leases for cellular telephone cell sites.  Cell sites transmit at 5-10 watts, and can receive transmissions from your phone at long distances that are sent at only 0.6 watts (standard transmitting power of cell phones; compare to my marine band VHF walkie-talkie which transmits at 6 watts).  We were perfectly happy to lease space on high power electrical line towers because they did not in any way interfere with our clients' cellular equipment.  To put it another way, your cellphone in your house next to a power line can penetrate what little radiation leaks from the power lines just fine at only 0.6 watts transmitting power.  So even if the electromagnetic leakage from high power lines was of a kind that is harmful (and no credible study has shown that it is) it is too little even to interfere with your little iPhone reaching a cell site mounted on the same tower as the power line, from up to several miles away.

Hope that helps.

There are no known risks from living near, under or around high voltage powerlines  There is NO "credible" research which indicates high voltage power lines, your electric meter, microwave ovens or cell phones and cell phone towers cause any health problems.  I am a college professor and have researched this for over 20 years.  All of the evidence and books which says high voltage power lines cause heath issues have used fake data, manipulated data or have been written by people who have no education or training in this subject mater and are trying to sell a book (make some money) or make a name for themselves.  Or are conspiracy theorists.

IF high voltage powerlines cause heath issues wouldn't you expect all of the power company employees who work around these high voltage lines everyday would have health issues at a higher rate than everyone else?  Turns out they don't.  But the conspiracy theorists will say they do and not provide any evidence show they do.  There are a couple of schools in the Bay Area which are very close to the high voltage powerlines.  Over the 60 - 70 years kids have been going attending these schools if there was a heath issue don't you think we would have seen it by now? 

When our kids were you we were looking at a two houses near and under those high voltage lines.  Only reason we didn't buy is because the electrical towers were ugly.  Heath wise, I would not have an issue having my kids live under one.

If you like the house buy it.  But realize that when you go to sell this urban myth about high voltage power lines causing heath issues will detract from the sales price of the house and make it a bit harder to sell.  But if you are going to stay for 10-20 years I would not worry.  There are many houses in Orinda, Lafayette and Walnut Creek which have high voltage power line and towers over and near houses.

Hope this helps.  

There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that power lines pose any risk at all unless they are poorly maintained and start a fire, so I wouldn't worry.

I am a scientist and have done extensive literature review on this topic due to my kid's sensitivity to it.  I can tell you that the impact of electro-magnetic field (EMF) on human health is unknown, because there is no well-controlled study.  It is virtually impossible and unethical to perform the study, because you cannot place large numbers of people under high EMF day after day and follow every aspects of their health (brain function, mental depression, cardiovascular functions, autoimmunity, etc).  It is further complicated by the fact that different individuals are likely to have different levels of sensitivity to EMF radiation.  What does not matter to one person may cause problems to another.  Not only that there is no proper study on this topic, the world does not even have a threshold of safety for EMF radiation.  Currently WHO has a task force to evaluate all existing literature on EMF and its health effects and try to come up with a universal limit on EMF.  There are papers reporting the harmful effects of EMF on mental health, autoimmunity and cancer risk, but the population of the studies was not large enough to draw a convincing conclusion.  Of course, EMF decreases rapidly with distance.  So it really depends on how far away the house is under the power line and how strong the power line is (110K voltage main lines are worse than the 30K lines obviously).  If you have another choice, I would not touch the ones under the high power line. 

The ones near us in El Cerrito emit a not insignificant buzzing noise if you're close enough to them. It drives me nuts when I walk past them. I have no idea if nearby houses are close enough to hear it but that would be my only warning. 

My husband's boss is a Ph.D. biologist.  She and her husband (also a Ph.D.) bought a house in Lafayette more than 20 years ago under a high voltage power line.  Before making an offer, they took a Gauss meter to the house to measure electromagnetic waves.  They were quite satisfied that there was no hazard, bought the house at a discount because other sellers were worried, and have been happy and healthy residents of Lafayette ever since.  They raised two kids to adulthood in that house.

We live almost right under HV power lines in El Cerrito, and, as BethH said, they buzz (particularly when it's foggy), but I am a scientist and not remotely concerned about any putative health effects. We have 3 kids who've lived under them for a total of 24 years, and they're weird, but I'm quite sure it's not because of the power lines!

a few thoughts.  First - the Gauss meter is an interesting point of reference, but in my understanding biologists still are a long way from fully understanding the effects of electric and magnetic field strength on living beings.  If you consider that birds are so sensitive they can detect the earth's magnetic field as a navigation aid ... that's a pretty weak magnetic field.

Physics tells us that field strength decreases with the square of the distance between the source and the measurement point - so being the next house over is probably a lot better than being the one directly underneath it.

That said, I have worked around all sorts of fields (cell sites, broadcast transmitters, indoor cell repeater systems, laboratory instrumentation) in my career, and my gut level intuition is to avoid exposure whenever possible ... because we just don't know about such field's long term effects on DNA, cellular metabolism, or the mysterious mechanisms of the brain.

Over the decades, I have routinely advised clients with penthouse offices to get the heck out when its discovered that 5' over their heads, the landlord has rented out roof space to a cellular carrier or intermediary tower real estate broker ... no one is coming around regularly to measure field strength or leakage in their workspaces regularly, and if there was a problem ... they are the lab rat.

Does any of that help?