Norco Fights for Undergrounding
Norco’s many requests, letters, petitions, and even proposals for legislation to underground the hazardous, high-voltage RTRP transmission lines in Norco and protect our city have been continuously denied or ignored. We’ve now all witnessed the devastation following the Fairview Fire, Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, not far from Norco, and we can’t just sit back knowing that Norco could be added to this list of tragedies.
Support Undergrounding RTRP
We’re calling on our residents, neighbors, and all supporters of undergrounding transmission lines to use their platforms and their voices to bring attention to this project before construction begins and demand that safety starts underground. Your help could prevent potential tragedies and protect our community for future generations.
Safety Starts Underground
For nearly a decade, the City of Norco has advocated for a safer underground solution for the proposed Riverside Transmission Reliability Project (RTRP), a joint project between Southern California Edison (SCE) and City of Riverside Public Utilities that will construct hazardous, above-ground transmission lines in the wind- and fire-prone area along Norco’s portion of the Santa Ana River. The proposed high-voltage transmission line route, which is similar to the transmission system under investigation as the potential cause of the Eaton Fire, runs through the same location as the 180-acre Mann Fire (a wind-driven brush fire in the Santa Ana Riverbed) originated in 2020, that caused severe damage to homes and property, and threatened animal safety.
Residents, fire experts and City officials have warned the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), SCE and City of Riverside that building such a massive overhead transmission project in the same highly flammable vegetation-ridden corridor will inevitably spark another, even larger, catastrophic wildfire.
We continue to see above-ground transmission lines lead to devastating and deadly wildfires in small, wind- and fire-prone communities like Norco. After witnessing these recent catastrophic fires, our local communities, state, and nation should be reconsidering dangerous, above-ground transmission lines like the RTRP and advocating for full undergrounding to prevent further tragedies.
Norco faces the very real threat of becoming the next headline, and it is paramount that the RTRP is undergrounded to protect the property, lives and animals within our community. Regrettably, the expert testimony of fire professionals and the pleas from our community have been ignored.
Norco demands that safety starts underground–the safest alternative to stop the fires is to bury the wires. There is still time for SCE, the CPUC or the City of Riverside to do the right thing and underground the RTRP in Norco and surrounding communities. The additional steps to underground this project will not compare to the devastation that follows a preventable catastrophe.