Residents in the city of Norco are worried about the threat of wildfires with a large infrastructure project now underway that will include the construction of large high-powered transmission lines over the Santa Ana river in an area known for high winds.
Not only are residents concerned about the large transmission lines potentially starting a large fire, but about the danger the lines would pose to firefighting aircraft operating in the area.
"It's just crazy," said resident Matt Blackburn. "We're going to put high power lines, over a known fire zone, where we have fires every year, and know we can't attack them from the air, which is the only way the fires get put out now."
Blackburn said he's also being sued by Southern California Edison, after refusing to grant the company an easement allowing them to build part of the project on his property.
"No phone call, no 'Hey, let's talk, let's negotiate, let's explain exactly what we want," said Blackburn, who said two months after he refused their $23,000 offer for an easement he was notified he was being sued.
"(It went from an) offer to lawsuit within less than two months."
The city of Norco has been fighting the Riverside Transmission Reliability Project since 2017. The joint project between Southern California Edison and Riverside Public Utilities would provide a second connection for the city of Riverside to connect to the regional power grid.
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Currently the city of Riverside only has one connection to the grid, and if that were to fail it could cut power to the entire city of Riverside for an extended period of time.
"We are the only city of our size in the state that doesn't have a second connection to a regional power grid," said Riverside city council member Jim Perry, who voted along with a majority of the Riverside city council to approve the project at a meeting last year.
To be clear, the city of Norco isn't opposed to the project entirely. Mayor Pro Tem Robin Grundmeyer said residents just want the entire project built underground.
"All we want is the lines to be undergrounded, that's all we're asking," said Grundmeyer. "We're not trying to stop the project and we're not trying to stop riverside from getting a second point of connection."
A Southern California Edison spokesperson provided a statement to Eyewitness News in response to our request for comment.
"The CPUC approved the Riverside Transmission Reliability Project (RTRP) in its current design as the environmentally superior feasible approach," said spokesperson Jeff Monford.
"It safeguards against extra undergrounding costs that customers would ultimately have to pay for and allows the project to continue to move forward expeditiously. As part of the project licensing and environmental review processes, wildfire risk was studied extensively.
"Further, like all SCE infrastructure, RTRP will be built with safety, reliability and wildfire mitigation top of mind. The corridor will incorporate weather monitoring, and of course the circuits will meet or exceed the CPUC's ground and wire to wire clearance requirements."