Ranch Community Park with a cable pole within existing SDG&E right-of-way. From this cable pole, the cable alignment would travel either southwest through City of San Diego dedicated park land and Multiple Species Conservation Plan open space areas near Emden Road and Carmel Valley Road (Alternative 2a), or northeast within the SDG&E right-of-way and under a paved service road within the City of San Diego’s Black Mountain Reservoir facility to Carmel Valley Road (Alternative 2b). This alternative would reduce significant and unavoidable impacts to recreation (i.e., the duration of temporary park closure) and traffic and transportation (i.e., the loss of parking) in Black Mountain Ranch Community Park, and would have the least impact on visual quality of all the considered alternatives. Alternative 3 (Los Peñasquitos Canyon Road Underground) would install 5.9 miles of underground transmission line between two new cable poles, along Scripps Poway Parkway, Mercy Road, Black Mountain Road, and Park Village Road, avoiding 6.4 miles of overhead transmission line construction in the northern portion of the proposed project and eliminating the need for one new TSP in Black Mountain Ranch Community Park. This alternative would eliminate a substantial amount of visual impact to residents and biological resource impacts in Black Mountain Ranch Preserve and Del Mar Mesa Preserve. It would also substantially reduce noise impacts by eliminating helicopter use and operational corona noise in the northern portion of Segment A and all of Segment C. However, this alternative could cause temporary closure and physical deterioration of a trail junction within Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. Underground construction would increase air related
statewide environmental benefits, of a proposed project outweigh the unavoidable or adverse environmental effects, the adverse environmental effects may be considered acceptable. As discussed in Part 2, above, the proposed project, configured as Alternative 5 (Pomerado Road to Miramar Area North Combination Underground/Overhead), will mitigate thermal overloads and avoid NERC reliability violations associated with the delivery of energy, and facilitate the delivery of renewable energy, to San Diego. These benefits outweigh Alternative 5’s unavoidable adverse environmental impacts on aesthetics, traffic and transportation, noise, and air quality. Electric and Magnetic The Commission has examined EMF impacts in several previous proceedings, concluding that the scientific evidence presented in those proceedings was uncertain as to the possible health effects of EMFs. Therefore, the Commission has not found it appropriate to adopt any numerical standards. Because there is no agreement among scientists that exposure to EMF creates any potential health risk, and because CEQA does not define or adopt any standards to address the potential health risk impacts of possible exposure to EMFs, the Commission does not consider magnetic fields in the context of CEQA and the determination of environmental impacts. However, recognizing that public concern remains, we do require, pursuant to GO 131-D, Section X.A, that all requests for a permit to construct include a description of the measures taken or proposed by the utility to reduce the potential for exposure to EMFs generated by the proposed project. We