EVMWD Comments On Controversial Power Project

When an administrative law judge recently required Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District to file comment on an application dismissal by the California Public Utilities Commission regarding the controversial Talega-Escondido/Valley Serrano 500kV Interconnect project, the district abided.

Click here or view the attached PDF to read the Dec. 16 comments from EVMWD’s attorneys before the California Public Utilities Commission regarding the application dismissal.

In a separate Dec. 16 document, the Center for Biological Diversity, Santa Ana Mountains Task Force of The Sierra Club, and The Friends of The Forest and Santa Rosa Plateau also provided joint comments to the state Public Utility Commission on the dismissal. Click here or view the additional attached PDF to read the comments.

The documents both offer insight on two controversial Lake Elsinore projects: The Talega-Escondido/Valley Serrano 500kV Interconnect project and the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage project, otherwise known as LEAPS.

The LEAPS project, originally proposed by The Nevada Hydro Company and the EVMWD, calls for pumping water from Lake Elsinore to a new dam on the crest of the Cleveland National Forest at night, then releasing that water during the day to power turbines to generate electricity.

( to read the latest on The Nevada Hydro Company’s efforts to revitalize the LEAPS project.)

To carry electricity generated by the LEAPS project, the Talega-Escondido/Valley Serrano 500kV Interconnect project has been a proposal to erect power lines that would cut across wildlands and rural communities in the local hillsides and Cleveland National Forest above Lake Elsinore, Wildomar and other surrounding communities. If constructed, the project would see nearly 32 miles of overhead power lines and 138 steel lattice towers stretching from the proposed LEAPS facility, southward to SDG&E's existing 230 kV Talega-Escondido transmission line in San Diego County, and northward to SCE's 500 kV Valley-Serrano transmission line in Riverside County.