Southern California Edison is using deceptive business practices.

Read Road is next to Underwood Family Farms. It has a few ranch houses and a small neighborhood at the end called The Enclave. We're fortunate to live in a beautiful, serene area between Moorpark and Thousand Oaks. Although our addresses say Moorpark, we're Thousand Oaks residents and taxpayers.

On Dec. 22, Edison sent notices. They wish to replace their wooden power lines with much bigger and much higher voltage metal lines. The letter was confusing; I consider myself intelligent, but I couldn't even determine what they were proposing after reading their notification. It was clearly meant to confuse us.

They said we had 30 days to protest (their proposal). However, when we tried to get details, my neighbors and I learned that everyone was gone for Christmas break.

We couldn't reach anyone until Jan. 5, which gave us barely two weeks to organize, study their gigantic application and try to refute their statements about the alleged safety of this project, and alert other residents. Jan. 20 follows Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday when there's no postal service. In reality, we have until Jan. 16 to protest. This is misleading, dishonest and unacceptable.

I want everyone to know what Edison is attempting to do.

These power lines would run along the street and be placed within 30 feet of some homes. They would also run along Sunset Valley Road, next to Underwood Farms, a popular destination for countless small children. They would also reduce our property values.

And if Edison gets what it wants, we won't have time to move to a safer location for our children. I'm a stay-at-home mother with a toddler, and I'll soon have a newborn.

I bought my property hoping to raise a family here, but would never have considered it if power lines had been here. There are many studies linking childhood exposure to this type of electromagnetic field and the development of cancer during childhood and later in life.

Although the company says there would be no environmental hazards, they're lying. Rebecca Voskanian Moorpark