Burial mounds may halt SCE plan

Burial mounds may halt SCE plan
BY GERALD CARROLL • gcarroll@visalia.gannett.com • August 14, 2008

According to geographic and historical research submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission.
Burial grounds
And if the findings are right, they could delay or even stop the electrical towers from being installed along the route.

George McEwen thinks it's right.

An Exeter-based citrus grower who stands to lose 60 acres of citrus trees in the path of the proposed power lines — called the "San Joaquin Cross Valley Loop" — McEwen said his own research confirms the findings of Lemoncove-area resident and historian Mary Gorden, who formally protested the lines' route May 30.

"We have hiked throughout that area, southeast of Lemoncove, and discovered ample evidence of Indian habitation," McEwen said.

Gorden, who is in Australia this week and unavailable for comment, filed a detailed report with the state PUC, which is considering Edison's preferred zig-zag route along with three alternate routes.

The $60 million power lines project is needed to accommodate Visalia's expected growth and resultant needs for electricity in future years, Edison officials say. The preferred route is the cheapest, the company insists.

However, hundreds of people who own property along Edison's preferred route have expressed outrage that it would cut through prime agricultural land — some north of Exeter — and cut through crucial acreage on which Farmersville was to develop a business park.

McEwen told the Tulare County Board of Supervisors during their meeting Tuesday that property owners affected along the route —called "Route 1" — have urged the PUC to have Edison place its new power lines and 140- to 160-foot-tall towers much farther north, an option called "Route 3."

The PUC's Jensen Uchida, the agency's manager for the project, told the supervisors Tuesday that the PUC has started a comprehensive environmental-impact report and that San Francisco-based Environmental Science Associates will prepare it.

Uchida could not be immediately reached for further comment Wednesday.

Doug Cover, ESA's vice president and energy-practice director who will oversee preparation of the environmental report, also was unavailable for comment.

McEwen said Uchida and other PUC officials were "very interested" in Gorden's claims.

Such information will be critical in what route the PUC allows.

A decision is expected by the PUC no sooner than early 2009.

"They [the PUC] want information from the people from that area who have the most up-to-date and accurate information about historic and archeological aspects of the proposed power-line path," McEwen said.

And, according to Gorden's letter to the PUC, the state agency didn't get a clear picture from Edison on the historic value of portions of the 19-mile route that would be cleared for the towers.

"Edison has submitted an unacceptable summary of the potential cultural and natural-resource impacts of the proposed [power lines] project," Gorden wrote on May 30. "Consultation with local Native Americans, the Tulare County Historical Society and the Southern Sierra Archeological Society would have helped provide a better understanding of the areas along the three proposed routes."

Gorden then cited 12 sensitive historic Indian sites that would be severely affected by power line towers.

"There's no way to get around these findings," McEwen said. "The PUC wants to know even more about this."

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com:80/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/NEWS01/808140315


In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com

"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"