Sunrise Powerlink alternatives bisect Back Country

By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun

     SAN DIEGO — In a report issued in March, the California Public Utilities Commission decided to keep three southern routes for the 500-kilovolt Sunrise Powerlink power line as possible alternatives to the preferred route through Anza-Borrego State Park.
     The three southern alternative routes however, would cut right through the communities of Jacumba, Boulevard, Campo, Pine Valley, Descanso and Alpine, as well as through large parts of the Cleveland National Forest.
     The report was issued after months of review, during which comments from local agencies and residents were solicited at various community meetings. But officials for the Cleveland National Forest were late gathering their comments and didn’t submit them in time.
     “They didn't get any input from us before reaching their conclusions,” one forest official said. Project officials say that more input will be gathered during the environmental impact report period, and the forest officials will have plenty of time to weigh-in.
     Forest officials oppose the southern options. One that would parallel Interstate 8 for many miles would not be consistent with a national forest land-management plan, and there are fire suppression and emergency response concerns, they argue in a letter to the commission. High-voltage wires could interfere with air tankers dumping fire retardant on flames in an area where many rural communities are, the letter says.
     SDG&E's preferred route for the 150-mile, $1.3 billion transmission line would not pass through the forest at all. It starts in the Imperial Valley, where wind and solar energy are expected to be developed; cuts through the middle of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; and ends at a substation near Del Mar.
     The powerlink proposal has met stiff opposition from residents in the line’s path and from environmentalists, who say it is unnecessary. SDG&E contends the line is needed to ensure regional electric reliability and allow for the import of power generated from renewable energy sources.
     After the initial project was proposed last year, the PUC ordered SDG&E to come up with several alternative routes that would avoid Anza-Borrego.
     “The PUC has told us that we have to look for another route,” said SDG&E representative Nick Pince. “They want us to find a route that doesn’t go through the Anza-Borrego State Park.”
     SDG&E has said the three alternative southern routes it reviewed are undesirable because they are close to a power line that has been knocked out of service by fire 23 times in the past decade. Having a second power line so close increases the risk that both could go out of service in a disaster, negating the main reasoning for the Sunrise routes.
     “I want to stress that SDG&E has already rejected these routes in preliminary studies because they are too costly, and don’t meet the demand that we want, Pince said.
     Many critics have argued that the line isn’t needed in San Diego, for renewable energy or reliability.
     “It’s a false choice,” said Sierra Club representative Kelly Fuller, of Alpine, regarding the alternative routes. “Anywhere they’re going to do this, it’s just not needed.”
     “We don’t want to make this a fight between the North County and the East County about where to put this transmission line,” Fuller said. “All this looking at alternative routes is taking away from the main focus, which should be exploring alternatives that don’t require a power line.”
     According to Jim Avery, vice president of electric for SDG&E, the project is not only for future needs, it is crucial for complying with a new state law that says all major utilities must secure 20 percent of their power from clean fuel sources, which aren't fossil, by 2010.
     With the recent approval by the CPUC on March 20, SDG&E took a step in that direction with four new renewable energy contracts.
     The contracts total about 140 megawatts of solar, biomass and geothermal energy. While SDG&E finalized the contracts last year with companies in San Diego and Imperial counties, the CPUC approval gives the official green light for the utility to move ahead with these projects.
     Esmeralda San Felipe Geothermal LLC will provide 20 MW of geothermal power by December 2010 using heat from beneath the earth's surface to generate electricity and provide heat. Bethel Solar's two contracts will deliver a total of 100 MW of electricity in two phases in June and December 2008 from solar-power technology, which uses solar-cell troughs that follow the sun's movement during the day to convert energy from the sun into electricity at two sites in Imperial Valley.
     If completed as envisioned by the utility, the electric transmission line would stretch 150 miles from Imperial County across northern San Diego County and cost about $1.3 billion to construct. The towers along the route would be gigantic metal structures, measuring 125 feet high and more than 100 feet wide at their base.
     Proposed for completion in 2010, the project would deliver 1,000 megawatts to the region, or roughly one-fourth of what it currently uses on the hottest days. A megawatt is the standard measuring unit of electricity and is generally enough to keep the lights on in 750 to 1,000 homes. But obviously much more energy is needed during the summer.
     The draft EIR/EIS is expected to be completed in July of this year. The agencies expect to lean heavily on that report as they decide by January 2008 whether to issue permits for the project.
     Planning groups in Boulevard, Pine Valley and Campo have voted to deny the Sunrise project in its entirety, including all alternative routes. Groups in Descanso and Jacumba also expressed discontent after presentations by SDG&E representatives regarding the powerlink.

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