VI. Support for the Project

The substation abuts Pala Reservation lands, and serves load on the reservation. Stanley McGarr, tribal member and the Executive Secretary of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, and David Fendrick, General Manager of the Pala Casino spoke at the public prehearing conference held on June 21, 2001, in the vicinity of the Pala Substation. They were concerned about the reliability of the existing substation to serve their community and expressed unqualified support for the expansion project. They stated that: the Pala Band had 1,200 members and a land base of 11,000 acres; they had 370 homes in the area and had plans to build more homes, including a facility for older people; temperatures in the area reach 110°F making air conditioning a necessity for aged and sick people; and, the casino would impose additional load on the system since it was now operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

SSRC opposes the Pala Substation Expansion. The members of this group do not reside in San Diego County or in SDG&E's service area. The group, consisting of residents and businesses in Riverside County, was formed in response to SDG&E's proposal to construct the 500-kV Valley-Rainbow transmission line, the subject of a separate application currently before the Commission (A.01-03-036). According to its bylaws, the general purposes of SSRC are to advocate and protest for ratepayers and residents in Southwest Riverside County against overhead transmission lines that would impact their health and safety. In its comments on the Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration, SSRC claims that it is a community group that represents residential ratepayers and it is interested in avoiding the addition of excessive and unnecessary costs to rate base.