Palomar Mountain News

Where could the 500,000 volt transmission lines go over Palomar? Map updated May 1, 2024

We are only guessing, based on the people who were notified with very vague environmental survey letters by SDG&E with this route. The notified property owners are in orange. There are now several dozen parcels of about 2200 acres with much along the south rim of Palomar Mountain. Based on this map, updated often, it could travel through Warner’s Valley at Lake Henshaw off the right side of the map, up to Panorama Trail off East Grade (blue line). Then continue all along that very lush and beautiful East Grade Road, through both the Will and Dyche Valleys.

A recent orange addition is the Walls property and one more below Crestline and straight up to the heart of Palomar where we have the General Store and Post Office. At our only businesses we would then drive under those lines then all along, below the left edge of State Park Road (yellow line). There is a row of new orange letter folks accessed by the first gate traveling down South Grade Road (in red). If that would be the route, a straight line drops down off the top of the ridge and points all the way to and through Nate Harrison Grade. Or, with the most recent additions at the far left side of State Park Road, I was told “the plan was to go through the State Park”. From there it is on it’s way to San Onofre to supply power to Orange County and LA. But keep in mind, these poles do not carry residential power. No power would be available for any off-grid area. Power is only headed to the coast.

Every single person going home to their cabin or ranch, or our many visitors in our old growth forest with the World Famous Observatory and 2000 acre State Park would travel this route. You would be driving along these possibly 260 foot towers humming with 500,000 volts of electricity and a butchered swath of our beautiful forest, meadows and ponds, clear-cut under all the lines. Keep in mind, according to CalFire, “a faulty transmission line” caused the Paradise Fire that burned over 150,000 acres. The same thing could happen here with our 100 mph winds out of the rim where this line might cut through.

Palomar has so many historic Indian sites with hundreds of grinding holes and areas where many pottery shards and arrowheads have been found. One of our residents is working on a post showing the endangered species found on the mountain, and grasses and plants that are only known to this area for basket weaving by the Indians, and endangered species habitats that have been studied for preserving .

We are so thankful we had our last minute meeting Sunday afternoon. With this news for the nearly $3 billion dollars for this leg of the project to be awarded in seven days, we needed all the help we can get. Many of us are working every minute with the goal to stop the project over Palomar!

+++

Thanks to Keith Thygerson, one of the owners of an orange parcel who has researched this project online and provided the info below.

Keith discovered that the bid for the job across Palomar (nearly $3 million) is to be AWARDED next Monday, April 29th!!!

What can you do???

If you haven’t already, subscribe at https://palomarmountainnews.com to keep up on the latest. We do have a .org in the works and will let you know when it is up.

Please SHARE WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS OF PALOMAR.  

Any great ideas or leads? Please send my way by clicking reply or calling or texting to 760-533-1742

We must get this stopped!

Thanks for your support.

Bonnie Phelps, for the Action Group to preserve Palomar Mountain

Meanwhile keep reading for all the details from Keith:

<<<<
From: Keith Thygerson
Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 6:15 PM
Subject: The Policy-Driven Imperial Valley – North of SONGS 500 kV Line and 500/230 kV Substation Project
To: Bonnie Phelps
As part of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) 2022-2023 Transmission Plan 

https://stakeholdercenter.caiso.com/RecurringStakeholderProcesses/2022-2023-Transmission-planning-process

One Policy-Driven project is named: Imperial Valley–North of SONGS 500 kV Line and Substation (Service Area SDGE), Expected in-service 2034, Projected Cost $2,288M (SONGS is San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station)

The details on that project are here: Appendix-I-Board-Approved-2022-2023-Transmission-Plan-AdditionalRevisions.pdf

This is one of 4 projects in the plan that are open to bidders other than the service provider (SDGE).
Here is the document about the bidding process: https://www.caiso.com/InitiativeDocuments/List-of-Qualified-Project-Sponsor-Applications-North-SONGS-to-Imperial-Valley-500kV-Substation-and-Transmission-Line-Project.pdf
The qualified project sponsors are listed below: 
– Horizon West Transmission, LLC 
– San Diego Gas and Electric Company 
– Lotus Infrastructure Global Operations, LLC in association with Southern California Edison Company 
– California Grid Holdings LLC (CalGrid) 

During a stakeholder meeting shown on the CAISO website, there was a stakeholder comment period and several other grid operators and groups made comments. I searched through them for the Imperial Valley – SONGS 500kv project and put the relevant comments in the attached txt file.
The original document can be found here: Comments on draft transmission plan 2022-2023 Transmission planning process Comment period Apr 11, 06:30 pm – Apr 25, 05:00 pm

The governing board of California ISO is as follows:

Click to access BoardofGovernorsRoster.pdf

The Revised Schedule – 2022-2023 Transmission Planning Process – Phase 3 Sequence

Shows April 29, 2024 or May 20, 2024 as the next date where the approved project sponsor will be posted.

A very good read on the background of this with good links to background documents is in this UT article:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/story/2023-05-14/san-diego-rooftop-solar-imperial-valley-transmission

I might call this project “Sunrise power link 2.0”… Keith >>>>

See also 500,000 volt power line info – We need YOU