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February 4, 2014 (Alpine)-- On February 5, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will hold a prehearing conference regarding San Diego Gas & Electric’s proposed Master Special Use Permit project at 1:30 pm in the Alpine Community Center (Oak Room), 1830 Alpine Blvd., Alpine, CA 91901.
“Improving fire safety is important, and it needs to be done right at a reasonable price. We’re going to be watchdogging this nearly half a billion dollar project to ensure that San Diegans aren’t gouged and that this project really is what SDG&E says it is,” said Bill Powers, an energy expert on the board of The Protect Our Communities Foundation (POC), which will participate in the pre-hearing conference.
A prehearing conference is called to determine the parties, positions of the parties, issues, and other procedural matters. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for this proceeding is Jean Vieth and the Assigned Commissioner is Michael Peevey. Vieth and Peevey were the ALJ and Assigned Commissioner for the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line proceeding.
The Master Special Use Project, if approved, would consolidate more than 70 special use permits for power line rights of way on Cleveland National Forest land in San Diego County into one master permit. It would also result in nearly 2,300 wooden power poles being replaced with steel poles, some overhead power lines being placed underground, and two power lines being changed from single to double circuits.
Controversially, SDG&E wants to replace nine wooden power poles with steel power poles in the Pine Creek and Hauser Wilderness Areas, which would require Congressional approval because the necessary construction work would otherwise violate the Wilderness Act. Instead, the U.S. Forest Service has requested SDG&E to provide new alternate power line routes outside the wilderness areas and to reroute two power lines outside of an undeveloped area and an Inventoried Roadless Area.
“SDG&E wants to put tall steel power poles in two wilderness areas and in other beautiful wild places even though they can make their system more fire resistant without doing that. By asking for alternate routes, the Forest Service has stood up to SDG&E, and the agency deserves praise for courage. It’s vital that everyone who possibly can comes to the prehearing conference on Feb. 5 to show the Commission that they share the concerns that the Forest Service has raised,” said Kelly Fuller, a consultant to the Protect Our Communities Foundation.
According to the project’s revised Plan of Development, the new steel poles could be as much as 120 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter at their base. Typical wooden 69 kV wooden poles are 50 to 70 feet tall.
Wooden power poles would also be replaced with taller steel power poles on land administered by California State Parks (Cuyamaca Rancho State Park), the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Campo and La Jolla Reservations), and on private land. According to the project’s September 2013 Federal Register notice, some of the project’s rights of way on BLM land are expired or were never issued at all.
Still unknown is whether SDG&E will be allowed to use eminent domain if landowners are unwilling to grant the utility new or adjusted easements on their properties. In its response to a December 2013 data request, SDG&E was unable to confirm that its current easements will be sufficient for the project and said its Lands Services department “may acquire or revise easement rights on a case by case basis.”
SDG&E took some landowners to court in eminent domain proceedings in order to build the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, which runs through portions of the Master Special Use Permit project area.
SDG&E plans to use helicopters during construction of this project, raising the issue of whether wildlife, families and their animals will experience helicopter-caused distress as they did during construction of the Sunrise Powerlink project.
Communities potentially affected by SDG&E’s Master Special Use Permit project include Alpine, Boulevard, Campo and Campo Reservation, Descanso, Julian, La Jolla Reservation, Mt. Laguna, Pauma Valley, Pine Valley, Potrero, Ramona, Rincon, Santa Ysabel, and Warner Springs.
According to SDG&E’s revised Plan of Development, the project’s area occurs within designated critical habitat for several wildlife and plant species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act including southwestern willow flycatcher, arroyo toad, Laguna Mountains skipper, San Diego bluegrass, and San Diego thornmint.
SDG&E’s revised Plan of Development predicts the project will take approximately five years to construct from initial site development to energization.
In addition to the prehearing conference, the public is also invited to attend the project’s supplemental scoping meeting on February 19, 2014 at the Alpine Community Center, 1830 Alpine Boulevard, Alpine, CA, from 5 to 7 pm. Supplemental scoping comments can be sent by March 7, 2014 to cnfmsup@dudek.com.
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