Bighorn Sheep Next Concern For Sunrise Powerlink

SAN DIEGO -- Bighorn sheep in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park might get so annoyed by the buzzing power lines proposed by the San Diego Gas & Electric Co. that they may abandon the area, it was reported Sunday.

State parks officials told the North County Times that environmental impact reports for the 500-kilovolt Sunrise Powerlink prove that the $1.3 billion power line proposed to cross the park should be rejected.

"If you ask me ... it's just not worth the risk," said Anza-Borrego Superintendent Mark Jorgenson, in an interview with the newspaper.

SDG&E has been in an enormous fight to build the proposed high-voltage line on steel towers through park lands and rural countryside paralleling state Route 78 between the Imperial Valley and North County. The utility says ratepayers should fund the project to ensure a reliable path for new electric resources, including geothermal and solar power generated in the deserts of Imperial and Riverside counties.

But residents along the route are aghast at the concept, and said SDG&E should place the power lines further south, where existing towers line Interstate 8. The utility's critics say the project is a boondoggle that would benefit SDG&E's corporate parent, Sempra, which is building a liquefied natural gas terminal in Mexico and natural gas lines to Imperial County to sell imported natural gas there.

A little-noticed section in Sunrise Powerlink's 7,000-page environmental impact report issued last week predicted that a herd of bighorn sheep would flee from the Grapevine Canyon area of the park if power lines are built through it. In addition, the power line would cut the park's herd of protected sheep in half, as they might view the towers and cables as an obstacle that they would refuse to walk under.

"If that line goes through, it will divide the northern and southern herd, which could be very detrimental to their breeding," said Diana Lindsay, a vice president of the Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute.

The sheep issue is the latest setback foe the SDG&E proposal. Last summer, the utility admitted that financial calculations used to justify the project's economics were faulty.