4. Feasibility of Environmentally
Superior Alternative

The feasibility of the environmentally superior alternative depends upon the BLM's grant of a right of way for constructing and operating the facilities on public lands. In the event that the BLM grants a right of way for something other than the environmentally superior alternative, or other permitting agencies permit other components, such components of the environmentally superior alternative will be legally infeasible.

No party asserted that the environmentally superior alternative is infeasible for legal, social, technological, or other considerations. (CEQA Guidelines § 15091(a)(3).) However, we acknowledge the many public comments objecting to the environmentally superior alternative on the basis that undergrounding of a portion of the 138 kV transmission line is costly and therefore unreasonable. Specifically, at the public participation hearing conducted on January 24, 2012, in Jacumba, California, three speakers opposed undergrounding portions of the project on the basis that the cost of undergrounding is significant. In addition, outside of the public participation hearing, 16 people e-mailed public comments to the ALJ, and one person left a voice message, expressing their opposition to undergrounding for reasons of its high cost.

The incremental cost of mitigation is not in and of itself sufficient basis to reject the environmentally superior alternative as infeasible. In Maintain Our Desert Environment v. Town of Apple Valley (2004) 124 Cal.App.4th 430, the court explained, "Economic unfeasibility is not measured by increased cost or lost profit, but upon whether the effect of the proposed mitigation is such that the project is rendered impractical .... But, if the project can be economically successful with mitigation, then CEQA requires that mitigation, regardless of the proponent's financial status." (Id. at 448-449.) There is no evidence that the ECO Partial Underground 138 kV Transmission Route Alternative Substation Project cannot be successfully accomplished as a result of the greater costs associated with undergrounding the transmission line, or that the cost of undergrounding will result in unreasonable rates.

The environmentally superior ECO Substation component is feasible.