Welcome to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) website for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review of the proposed Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Line Project. Applications for this project were submitted to the CPUC on December 14, 2005 (A.05-12-014) and August 4, 2006 (A.06-08-010). This site provides access to public documents and information relevant to the CEQA and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review processes.

Background

SDG&E has filed an application with the CPUC to construct the Sunrise Powerlink Project (SRPL). The CPUC is the CEQA lead agency and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the lead agency under NEPA. This project was approved by the California Independent System Operator on August 3, 2006. The Proponent's Environmental Assessment was filed with the CPUC on August 4, 2006 and is available on SDG&E's project website.

The CPUC maintains other web pages for documents related to its proceeding on the SRPL, where it makes available documents filed by parties to that proceeding. The two web pages for Applications A.06-0-8010 and A.05-12-014 list documents and rulings filed in the proceedings. The CPUC also maintains a page of general information on the SRPL project.

The SRPL Project, as proposed by SDG&E, includes a new, approximately 90-mile, 500 kV line from Imperial Valley Substation (in Imperial County, near the City of El Centro) to a new Central East Substation (in central San Diego County, south of the intersection of County Highways S22 and S2). The 500 kV portion would approximately follow the eastern boundary of BLM lands west of El Centro and SR 78, and would pass through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Decisions on EIR/EIS Alternatives

March 2007 Notice. The CPUC and BLM held a second scoping period during January and February 2007 in order to hear input on alternatives to the Sunrise Powerlink Project. The comment period ended on February 24, 2007, and a second Scoping Report is now being prepared to document all comments received. The CPUC/BLM Notice Regarding Conclusions on EIR/EIS Alternatives to the Proposed Sunrise Powerlink Project is now available. This Notice, with seven maps, was mailed to everyone on the project mailing list during the week of March 19, 2007. The maps referenced in the Notice may be viewed through the links presented below under "Documents Available."

A second Scoping Report has been prepared, including copies of all comment letters and transcripts of oral comments made at the February 5-9, 2007 Public Meetings on Alternatives. This report is included in the document list below and copies have been placed in local document repository sites.

May 2007 Notice. The conclusions presented in the March Notice referenced above were based on the feedback received from the public and agencies, along with research conducted by the EIR/EIS team. Following the publication of that Notice, additional input was received from the Cleveland National Forest (Forest), including Forest's request that an alternative be fully analyzed in the EIR/EIS that would not require an amendment to the Forest's 2005 Land Management Plan. As a result, portions of the Route D Alternative that were previously considered and eliminated have been combined with new route segments, and will be analyzed in the EIR/EIS. The CPUC/BLM Notice Regarding an Additional EIR/EIS Alternative to the Proposed Sunrise Powerlink Project was mailed in mid-May to announce this change.

September/October 2006 Scoping

On August 31, 2006, the BLM published its Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement in the Federal Register (Volume 71, No. 169, page 51848). On September 15, 2006, the CPUC issued a Notice of Preparation/Notice of Public Scoping Meetings for an Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement. In early October 2006, the CPUC and BLM held a series of seven public scoping meetings in Imperial and San Diego Counties to take public comment on the scope and content of the environmental document. The scoping comment period ended on October 20, 2006.

A Scoping Report (Part 1) was prepared and was sent to all repositories on November 29, 2006; see the list of available documents below. The Scoping Report includes a copy of every letter submitted, as well as transcripts of the public scoping meetings and summaries of issues raised during scoping.

Documents Available

The following documents are available at 28 libraries and offices in the project area.

 — CPUC/BLM Notice Regarding an Additional EIR/EIS Alternative to the Proposed Sunrise Powerlink Project (May 16, 2007)

 — Scoping Report, Part 2 (April 2, 2007)

 — Notice Regarding Conclusions on EIR/EIS Alternatives to the Proposed Sunrise Powerlink Project (March 16, 2007)

Figure 1. Imperial Valley Link Alternatives
Figure 2. Anza-Borrego Link Alternatives
Figure 3. Central Link Alternatives
Figure 4. Inland Valley Link Alternatives
Figure 5. Coastal Link Alternatives Retained
Figure 6. Coastal Link Alternatives Eliminated
Figure 7. Southwest Powerlink Alternatives

 — Notice of Second Round of Scoping Meetings on Alternatives to the Proposed Sunrise Powerlink Project (January 22, 2007)

Figure 1. Sunrise Powerlink Project Overview
Figure 2. Imperial Valley Link Alternatives
Figure 3. Anza-Borrego Link Alternatives
Figure 4. Central Link Alternatives
Figure 5. Inland Valley Link Alternatives
Figure 6. Coastal Link Alternatives Retained
Figure 7. Coastal Link Alternatives Eliminated
Figure 8. Southwest Powerlink Alternatives
Figure 9. Non-Wires Alternatives
Figure 10. System Alternatives

 — Scoping Report, Part 1 (November 29, 2006)

 — Notice of Preparation (NOP) (September 15, 2006)

Figure 1. Proposed Project Overview
Figure 2. Imperial Valley Link
Figure 3. Anza-Borrego Link
Figure 4A. Central Link
Figure 4B. Proposed Central East Substation
Figure 5A. Inland Valley Link
Figure 5B. Detail of Ramona Area
Figure 6A. Coastal Link
Figure 6B. Rancho Peñasquitos Detail
Figure 7. SDG&E Alternatives Fully Evaluated and Carried Forward in PEA
Figure 8. SDG&E Alternatives Considered and Eliminated

 — Notice of Intent (August 31, 2006)

 — SDG&E's Application and Proponent's Environmental Assessment (August 4, 2006).

Data Requests

The EIR/EIS Team will submit Data Requests to SDG&E when it needs specific information to support EIR/EIS preparation. These requests will be made available here at the time they are issued. Data requests submitted to SDG&E to date are provided below. Responses to these data requests can be found at SDG&E's website.

Data Request No. 1 (September 27, 2006)
Data Request No. 2 (November 15, 2006)
Data Request No. 3 (November 21, 2006)
Data Request No. 4 (December 6, 2006)
Data Request No. 5 (January 8, 2007)
Data Request No. 6 (January 26, 2007)
Data Request No. 7 (February 1, 2007)

For Additional Information

To request additional information or to be added to the mailing list, please contact us by email, fax, or phone, as follows:

The CPUC's Project Manager is: