Powerlink will increase fire risk
SDG&E can say that the Sunrise Powerlink will not increase the risk of wildfire ("Wires would ‘knife' backcountry," March 12), but I haven't forgotten that my property burned in 2002 in the Pines fire -- a wildfire that started with the collision of an aircraft with an SDG&E line.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power recently protested Fort Irwin's plans to expand its training-flight program, claiming that the increase in risk of collision with the utility's transmission lines was unacceptable. Here, meanwhile, SDG&E proposes to build a high-voltage transmission line directly across an established low-altitude military training route.
The fires of October 2003 demonstrated that fires that start in San Diego's backcountry can easily sweep into the suburbs. The danger is still extreme. A swath of highly flammable vegetation -- one that hasn't burned in recorded history -- runs from Santa Ysabel and Mesa Grande through the northern portions of Ramona to the heart of North County suburbia. This route is precisely where SDG&E will likely place the Sunrise Powerlink. Those county residents who complacently believe that the Powerlink is simply a NIMBY issue and not of broad regional concern should be prepared after the next big fire to accept the explanation that "accidents happen."
JARED ALDERN
RanchitaText from article in NC Times
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/03/19/opinion/letters/3_18_0619_01_55.txt