SDG&E Proposes Transmission Routes Around Anza-Borrego Park

SAN DIEGO -- In response to a directive from a state commissioner, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. has outlined three alternate routes for a proposed transmission line that would go around a state park instead of through it.

But E. Gregory Barnes, attorney for SDG&E, maintained in a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission that none of the three is acceptable because each would cause more damage to the environment than the utility's preferred route through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the North County Times reported.

All three routes around California's largest state park would run through the southern part of San Diego County near Interstate 8, the newspaper reported.

Barnes stated that as many as 50 homes would have to be torn down to make way for the proposed $1.3 billion Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, if one of the alternatives was chosen. He said the preferred route would not uproot any families, the Times reported.

Public meetings on the power line are set for Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Charles Nunn Performing Arts Center, at Olive Peirce Middle School, 1521 Hanson Lane, Ramona, according to the Times.

State park officials have stated that they have serious concerns about the preferred route through the park because it would encroach on 73 acres of protected wilderness.

SDG&E is proposing a route that would crisscross the backcountry of Imperial and San Diego counties. Besides Anza-Borrego, the line would cross Ramona and Rancho Penasquitos.

The project would deliver 1,000 megawatts of electricity to 1.3 million homes and businesses in San Diego County and southern Orange County.