Eagles put pressure on San Diego Gas & Electric. Utility races to meet power-line construction deadline before nesting season

Construction and helicopter crews are racing to build key portions of a cross-county power transmission line before the official onset of golden eagle nesting season on Thursday.  San Diego Gas & Electric has until the end of Wednesday to complete four relatively short, overhead sections of the 117-mile transmission line known as the Sunrise Powerlink. An agreement with state and federal regulators places those areas off limits from Dec. 1 through June 30.

By next summer, the investor-owned utility hopes to have completed the entire $1.9 billion infrastructure project, linking substations in San Diego with El Centro in the Imperial Valley.  The 13 powerline towers abutting nesting areas are finished, said Jennifer Ramp, a spokeswoman for SDG&E. But crews and aircraft were still busy on Monday stringing power cable across those and some adjoining towers.

Marker balls, the spheres that make power lines more visible to aircraft pilots, must also be attached by the same deadline to the lines to comply with Federal Aviation Administration requirements. The markers have shown to be effective in reducing bird collisions.  “We’re very close,” Ramp said. “If we don’t finish, we would work with the appropriate agencies as well as with golden eagle experts on a variance request.”   
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