SDG&E to ask for access to backcountry for transmission line construction
By: North County Times Wire Services - | ∞
SAN DIEGO - San Diego Gas & Electric Co. will ask a judge this week to grant it access to various North County backcountry properties so it can prepare for the possible construction of a controversial 500-kilovolt transmission line, it was reported today.
The property owners have so far denied SDG&E access and will contest the request at a hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. tomorrow in San Diego Superior Court, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The utility maintains it needs to get on the property to do routine surveying and to conduct various tests "to identify with specificity the route for the proposed project which will be most compatible with the greatest public good and least private injury," according to court documents, the newspaper reported.
SDG&E has proposed the $1.3 billion line to link alternative power sources in Imperial County with San Diego County. It says the line, called the Sunrise Powerlink, is needed by 2010 to insure a reliable supply of electricity for the region, according to the Union-Tribune.
The preferred route would take the line through the heart of Anza- Borrego Desert State Park, through Grapevine Canyon near Ranchita to a substation to be built near Warner Springs or Santa Ysabel. The line will then head south and west through numerous communities including Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos.
Numerous community and environmental groups oppose the route. The project and the route must still be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, which is expected to make a decision by the end of this year.
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