In its rollout of a series of wildfire prevention projects on a stretch of Lucas Valley Road this year, Pacific Gas and Electric cut down redwoods, destroyed new roadwork and perplexed county officials with what appeared to be uncoordinated efforts.
After removing trees as part of its enhanced vegetation management program, the company installed power safety settings on its transmission lines before setting out to underground those lines. All the work took place along a newly repaved portion of road that runs almost entirely between two large parcels owned by Skywalker Properties. PG&E’s current effort to bury the lines is destroying road work completed by the county three years ago.
Although the Department of Public Works granted PG&E permission for the undergrounding, the work violated a general rule the county abides by that prohibits digging for five years after paving.
In a June 9 letter to the utility, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni asked why PG&E embarked on overlapping efforts that canceled each other out.
“Why did PG&E remove trees under its [enhanced vegetation management program] in this area and then also perform costly (and proven effective) Enhanced Power Safety work, and now, just weeks later, embark on this undergrounding of PG&E lines?” he wrote.
In a response, PG&E wrote that all three prevention strategies were used because Lucas Valley Road is located witshin an area of extreme fire risk. They said the vegetation trimming and de-energizing of lines were short-term solutions to prevent wildfire before the lines went underground.
Climate-caused wildfires have been increasing in frequency and intensity over the past few years in California. After PG&E was held responsible for sparking multiple deadly blazes, the utility has been under pressure to remove vegetation and bury its lines.
PG&E has committed to undergrounding 1.2 miles of transmission line on Lucas Valley Road north of Big Rock to Rancho Santa Margarita, and 1.6 miles along Camino Margarita.
Enhanced vegetation management work, designed to remove dead, dying or hazardous trees that threaten transmission lines, began separately last year along the Lucas Valley Road section and is almost complete. Spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said the last phase of the E.V.M. work, from Big Rock to the 5000 block of Lucas Valley Road, is undergoing the environmental review process that occurs before trimming or removal, though the utility is evaluating if the work is necessary now that the lines will be underground.
The undergrounding, which began in May, will be completed by the end of August, Ms. Contreras said. Undergrounding on Camino Margarita is scheduled to begin this year.
Marin and other surrounding counties have seen significant debate over the utility’s E.V.M. program. Some West Marin residents have criticized the program, saying it leads to the removal of trees that may not truly pose hazards. Residents and natural resource managers have said the program fails to consider the ecological importance of trees in riparian areas and their role in stabilizing creek banks and providing habitat for endangered species like coho salmon.
In this case, Supervisor Rodoni said PG&E poorly coordinated its work on Lucas Valley Road. After watching the E.V.M. work for at least a year, he said he started “scratching his head” when he saw first the powerline safety work, and then the undergrounding. “We were pretty surprised when the subsequent work started happening,” he said.
The county’s five-year moratorium on digging after new roadwork isn’t a hard and fast rule, he said, but it’s an agreed-upon recommendation.
The Department of Public Works, which issued the permit allowing PG&E to dig up the road, said the utility will be required to restore the roadway with new paving and resurfacing, and pay for all associated costs. Spokesman Julian Kaelon said the department would provide quality control services to ensure the road is repaired correctly.
Supervisor Rodoni said he wished the utility had taken advantage of “dig once” strategies that encourage providers of broadband services to install infrastructure simultaneously. He said the undergrounding would have been a good opportunity to coordinate with AT&T, which shares the poles. AT&T could have buried its communication lines, allowing for the total removal of poles along that stretch of road.
Mark Van Gorden, a senior government relations and public affairs officer with PG&E, said the utility attempted to coordinate with AT&T but the communications company declined the invitation. Responsibility for the maintenance of the poles will be transferred to AT&T once PG&E’s lines are buried, and the poles will be shortened to match the reduction in infrastructure.
Supervisor Rodoni said encouraging utilities to underground lines often takes governmental participation. Had supervisors been notified, they could have potentially provided funding and helped persuade AT&T to participate. “We could have maybe ended up with a better project by burying everything underground,” he said.
He’s hopeful that, in the future, PG&E will plan better so it doesn’t spend money on projects that cancel each other out.
“As we look outward to other places that need enhanced vegetation work, where there is questionable removal of trees and other potential environmental impacts, it certainly would be good if they ended up undergrounding those routes next year,” he said. “It would look pretty bad if you removed redwood trees, for example, that were at risk of falling on your lines and then you turned around and buried the lines.”