Background

The RTRP will construct a minimum 120-foot tall lattice steel tower adjacent to Norco’s portion of the Santa Ana River and the residential neighborhood near Grulla Court in the north east part of Norco bordering the City of Riverside. The project will construct high-voltage transmission lines that will run over the vegetation-ridden Santa Ana River, connecting Jurupa Valley and Norco.

The Riverside Transmission Reliability Project (RTRP) is a joint project between Southern California Edison (SCE) and Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) to build a new 230,000-volt (230 kV) electric transmission line, providing the City of Riverside with a second connection to the California electric grid. The project spans parts of Riverside, as well as sections of Norco and Jurupa Valley, and mixes overhead and underground transmission lines. The RTRP plans to build high-power overhead transmission lines in a wind- and fire-prone area along Norco’s portion of the Santa Ana River.

The approved overhead transmission lines present significant safety and environmental hazards, specifically wildfire hazards, to Norco and many surrounding communities.The proposed 230,000-volt (230kV) electric 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 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. Fire officials have informed that the approximate 120-foot-tall (minimum) overhead transmission lines, which have been known to cause conflagrations that destroyed communities, will limit firefighting capabilities and prevent air support in an area where high winds already make ground firefighting difficult and, at times, impossible. Additionally, evacuations in Norco are complicated by the Santa Ana River blocking escape routes to the north, hills to the east, narrow streets, and the many horses and animals that also need evacuation. The risk of another devastating fire will be increased exponentially by the construction of an overhead, high-voltage transmission line that will pass through open space loaded with flammable vegetation in the very region that gave the notorious Santa Ana Winds their name and where a catastrophic wildfire already took place.

For nearly a decade, the City of Norco has communicated its concerns about the RTRP. 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. Visit Timeline to learn about the City of Norco’s ongoing efforts to underground the RTRP.

In March 2020, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) granted Southern California Edison (SCE) a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the Riverside Transmission Reliability Project. The decision explains that, before and after Riverside certified the EIR, the City of Jurupa Valley approved residential and commercial developments within the proposed alignment for SCE’s portion of RTRP. As a result, in September 2016, SCE revised its proposed transmission line route to avoid these projects. These revisions posed potentially new or increased impacts that were not addressed in the 2013 EIR. Accordingly, the Commission’s Energy Division issued a subsequent environmental impact report (SEIR) on October 2, 2018, to address the impacts of the revised portion of the project.The revised project would underground approximately 2 miles of the transmission line within the City of Jurupa Valley.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), with Commissioners appointed by Governor Newsom, is ultimately responsible for the approval of this project and the manner in which it is constructed.

• SCE claims that undergrounding the project will cost $521 million compared to $408 million to build the RTRP overhead.
• However, in 2020, the California Public Advocates Office estimated that the costs of fully undergrounding this project by replacing the remaining 5 miles of overhead lines, when allocated to all transmission customers by the California System Operator (CAISO), will require an increase in residential rates of a small fraction of $1 per year for each customer.

The Norco City Council believes it’s never too late to do the right thing. There are a variety of ways you can demand that safety starts underground and advocate to underground the RTRP in Norco. Take Action