Utility alters power line route

By DAVE DOWNEY

North County Times Staff Writer
 

Thursday, March 13, 2008

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. offered Thursday to lighten the environmental footprint of its controversial $1.5 billion power line by slightly altering its route through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

But opponents of the proposed Sunrise Powerlink transmission line said the change only would make matters worse because towers would be taller and more park visitors would see them.

"If they go higher, then the impact ... is going to be even greater," said Diana Lindsay, vice president of environmental affairs for the Anza-Borrego Foundation that opposes the high-voltage line.

SDG&E, the powerful utility that provides electricity to San Diego County and southern Orange County, introduced in a 500-page report an "Enhanced Northern Route" that it says would avoid park wilderness.

The report responded to a 7,000-page environmental impact study that concluded in January that the Sunrise Powerlink would harm the nation's largest state park outside of Alaska. The utility wants to build a 150-mile superhighway of electricity between El Centro and Carmel Valley, with 23 miles in Anza-Borrego.

This week was the time for parties on both sides of the issue to file reports with the California Public Utilities Commission on the environmental study. The commission will consider those and volumes of other information when it decides next summer whether to license the project.

The filings were watched closely by public officials, business leaders and activists who are tracking the project's progress.

"We're very sensitive to any impacts in the state park and that's why we're proposing the Enhanced Northern Route," said spokeswoman Jennifer Briscoe.

The utility said it intends to stay within a 100-foot easement it claims across the park, negating the need for the California Park and Recreation Commission to amend its general plan for Anza-Borrego and scale back the park's wilderness.

The company said it can narrow the footprint and stay within the 100-foot-wide corridor by building up instead of out ---- with towers that average 160 feet tall rather than 130, as first proposed, according to the filing.

The utility also offered to move the wires out of Grapevine Canyon, the location of sensitive cultural areas, and out of view of popular Tamarisk Grove Campground.

The problem according to Lindsay is that she believes none of the proposals would work. Not only would towers be visible from a wider area of the park, but going around the canyon and campground would mean going directly through wilderness, she said.

"It's definitely not a solution," Lindsay said. "And you're still going to impact cultural sites, flora and fauna."

She said towers still would change forever the character of a 600,000-acre park that accounts for half the territory in California's state park system and 90 percent of the system's wilderness.

"One special thing about the park is its vastness and its sense of timelessness ... and if you see a tower marching across it, you will no longer have that sense of timelessness," Lindsay said.

Lindsay was one of those who filed a report. So was Diane Conklin, a Ramona activist who has repeatedly warned of the potential for more wildfires to break out in the backcountry with more wires.

And Michael Shames, executive director for the Utility Consumers' Action Network in San Diego, pointed out that the environmental study concluded that five alternative projects ---- including new San Diego-area power plants and a power line in western Riverside County ---- would exact a lighter toll on the environment.

One of those watching the flurry of filings was Ruben Barrales, president and chief executive officer of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, a business group that backs the project.

The utility's filing "emphasizes the point that you get more reliability and better access to renewable sources of energy from the northern route," Barrales said.

The public still has time to make formal comments on the environmental study, which was compiled by the Public Utilities Commission staff. People may file written comments through April 11.

The study may be viewed at www.cpuc.ca.gov/Environment/info/aspen/sunrise/sunrise.htm

Most of the project's 500-kilovolt wires would be strung from metal towers in excess of 100 feet each, while about 10 miles would be laid in the ground in neighborhoods.

The route would extend 150 miles through Anza-Borrego, Ranchita, Santa Ysabel, Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos. The lines would deliver 1,000 megawatts, boosting the region's electricity supply by about 20 percent.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.

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