 "Photo: MCT Campus")
The Anza-Borrego desert, less than an hour away from San Diego State, has been used as a home, a place of exploration and a geological wonder for desert enthusiasts. Now it's the proposed location for SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink, a series of electrical lines.
Micah Mitrosky is a staff member in the Sierra Club and a conservation organizer of the smart energy campaign. This means that when she's not promoting clean, local and renewable energy, she's trying to stop a construction of Sunrise Powerlink.
According to Mitrosky, the controversy first began when a federal agency began creating National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. These sites were seen as places that could help strengthen America's energy infrastructure.
Mitrosky said she would expect a corridor to be a smaller designated area. The federal government thought otherwise. The entire state of New Jersey, for example, is now an NIETC.
Another site is southern California, which is why SDG&E was able to propose putting lines through a state park, which is exactly what they did.
SDG&E currently has one contract solar plant using experimental energy, according to Mitrosky.
Several people see the solar plant as a doomed project. Mitrosky claims that engineers contracted by the Sierra Club and even a high-ranking employee in the site have said this type of solar-energy is not likely to work.
The real motivation for the project, according to Mitrosky, is to sell electricity to Los Angeles from Mexico that has been generated by liquefied natural gas.
SDG&E is owned by Sempra Energy. This parent company is building gas pipelines in Mexico across the Baja peninsula. The liquefied gas is offloaded from tankers coming from Indonesia.
This process was deemed too dirty for California's environmental standards, according to Mitrosky.
SDG&E has information about its project at www.sdge.com/sunrisepowerlink.com. The site has a list of myths and facts, as well as maps and other information about the construction.
It says the construction would "improve the reliability of the region's electric transmission grid by providing an 'energy superhighway' that would reduce congestion on existing lines." Furthermore, 20 percent of energy supplies would come from renewable sources by 2010.
The superhighway is going through a designated wilderness area, which is a cause for some of the uproar. If the lines are built it will be the first time a state park has been stripped of its designation in California's history according to Mitrosky.
Currently, the lines are going through environmental review by a state committee. When that review is complete, the public will be able to voice their opinion about the project.
There are other significant features in the park as well. This semester, Aztec Adventures will be running a new trip: the Anza-Borrego mud caves and meteor shower trip.
Trever Waage will be leading the trip. At $155 for ARC members and $175 for non-members, it's the cheapest and shortest of the overnight trips offered by SDSU's outings programs.
Waage said he plans to take the group out on a Saturday afternoon. As the sun goes down he and his co-leader, Stephen Stone, will head to the Anza-Borrego mud caves. They plan on exploring the caves by candlelight.
"The longest cave is something like a mile, maybe longer," Waage said. After walking through, they will emerge on a plateau where they plan on watching the meteor showers from the clear desert sky.
Both of these trips are full this semester, but there is another mud cave trip planned for spring semester, as well as a trip to Whale Peak in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Visit Aztec Adventures' Web site,www.aztecadventures.sdsu.edu, for more information about these trips and others.
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