CPUC finalizes power-line alternatives
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | ∞
Power plants in metropolitan San Diego, underground wires in Santa Ysabel and routes across Anza-Borrego Desert State Park will be studied as alternatives to San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s proposed power line, a state regulatory agency decided Friday.
At the same time, the California Public Utilities Commission announced that it had axed potential routes for the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line through Julian and Borrego Springs and across Volcan Mountain.
In all, the commission carried forward more than 25 options for detailed study in an environmental analysis that is expected to be completed in mid-July. The agency eliminated about 80 options from further consideration.
The utility is proposing to string 500-kilovolt wires across metal towers as tall as 150 feet along a meandering, 150-mile preferred route from El Centro to Carmel Valley that would pass through the park, Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos.
The commission is expected to decide the fate of the $1.3 billion project in January 2008.
"There weren't any real surprises," said Stephanie Donovan, a spokeswoman for San Diego Gas & Electric.
Project spokesman Scott Crider said the decision to carry forward an underground alternative through the Santa Ysabel Valley, along Highway 79 between Highways 76 and 78, offers an option for virtually eliminating visual impact in that area.
"That's been one of our hot spots (for community opposition)," Crider said.
Environmentalists characterized the development as a partial victory.
"We've got the good, the bad and the ugly today," said David Hogan, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity in San Diego. "The good news is that some of the worse routes impacting communities and nature have been eliminated, such as the Borrego Springs route. And no-wires alternatives, like increased generation of power locally, received serious consideration."
Two projects to be analyzed as alternatives to the Sunrise line are the proposed replacement of the South Bay power plant in Chula Vista and the proposed new power plant on the southeast corner of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
Some of the more intrusive routes in the Rancho Penasquitos area were eliminated.
Donovan added that the elimination of an alternate route along County Road S-22 through Borrego Springs means the Tubb Canyon landowners, who have resisted the utility's efforts to survey their properties, no longer need to worry about opening their gates. Several property owners, including a family that resides in Encinitas, have court dates in Vista next week and the week after on the matter.
"Since that has been eliminated, we will not need to have access to their property," Donovan said.
Ann Irwin of Encinitas said she and her husband Bill Collins, who own 700 acres around a scenic overlook on S-22 west of Borrego Springs, were relieved by the development.
"Clearly, SDG&E no longer has the authority and the right to come onto our priority," Irwin said. "For us, this is a big personal victory. We absolutely love the desert."
"The worst of the routes are gone, but the project unfortunately lives on," Hogan said.
Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.
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harvey wrote on Mar 17, 2007 6:57 AM:If SDG&E would take the money they are going to spend on the power link and help pay for people to put solar on their property they would not need the link.
JS wrote on Mar 17, 2007 4:33 PM:We need to have more smaller and diverse local plants rather than depending on expensive and ugly "supersized" ones. This would eleminate the need for costly transmission lines where much of the electricity is lost in transit and perhaps localize brown-outs.
Doc wrote on Mar 23, 2007 8:01 AM:For SDGE to run a 500V powerlink through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park would victimize Californians for generations to come. I've been to the scoping meetings and SDGE has failed to prove a need for this powerlink, other than their profit.
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