Fire Risk Not Properly Considered For Sunrise Powerlink

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 13, 2009 at 3:05 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The proposed Sunrise Powerlink faces another legal challenge. Two San Diego residents are appealing a federal agency decision that approved the route for the electric transmission powerline. KPBS Env

The proposed Sunrise Powerlink faces another legal challenge. Two San Diego residents are appealing a federal agency decision that approved the route for the electric transmission powerline. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The Bureau of Land Management approved the 123-mile powerline route on the final day of the Bush Administration.

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That approval gives San Diego Gas and Electric rights to build the line through BLM and U.S. Forest Service land.

The transmission lines would run along Interstate 8, while skirting the edges of the Cleveland National Forest.

Opponents say the project could increase fire risk in San Diego County's backcountry.

Conrad Hartsell and Katheryn Rhodes are appealing the BLM approval.

"BLM based a lot of their decisions that the Powerlink will be going through an area where there's a very low fire risk, where there's never been any fires, Rhodes says. "And they're basing that on the data from a CalFire database, which is incomplete."

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Rhodes says the BLM, SDG&E and the state Public Utilities Commission should reanalyze the fire data.

SDG&E's parent company says the BLM did a complete analysis.

The company expects the approval to be upheld.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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