[ADDRESS] and [YEARS] are filled in from what the letter writer types.
Keep the line off Scenic 79
San Diego Backcountry says NO to the SDG&E Golden Pacific PowerlinkSDG&E wants to run a 500,000-volt transmission line up the Highway 79 corridor through our valley. We are neighbors, ranchers, vintners and families who oppose it, and we are asking the California Public Utilities Commission to take this route off the table.
Warner Springs sits at about 3,200 feet in the historic Valle de San José, below Hot Springs Mountain, the highest peak in San Diego County. This rural backcountry holds the headwaters of two major watersheds: the San Luis Rey River, which runs west to the ocean at Oceanside, and the Santa Margarita River, fed by Temecula Creek, which reaches the sea at Camp Pendleton. Oak woodland, open grassland and granite ridges run to the edge of the Cleveland National Forest and the Los Coyotes Reservation.
People come here for what has disappeared from most of Southern California: quiet roads, dark skies, cattle on open range, hot springs with centuries of history, and the Pacific Crest Trail passing right through town. The history runs deep along Highway 79, too. The Oak Grove Butterfield Stage Station, a stop on the 1858 Butterfield Overland Mail route, is both a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark.
This is living habitat, too. These hills are wildlife movement corridors that connect protected lands, from Palomar Mountain and the Cleveland National Forest to the ranges to the east. Residents know the Oak Grove area along Highway 79 as a crossing for our threatened mountain lions, along with bobcats and other wildlife. Much of this land is already protected: the Oak Grove Unit of the San Felipe Valley Wildlife Area is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the state has invested millions of dollars to protect it and keeps expanding it with new purchases. The upper San Luis Rey River basin includes designated critical habitat for the endangered arroyo toad, and other rare species, such as the endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly, survive in only a few places in inland Southern California. Ancient oaks, some of them centuries old, shade the creeks and pastures. A 500 kV corridor of towers, access roads and cleared right-of-way would cut through all of it.
Base map: SDG&E's preliminary routing map. The route is preliminary and may change. To see how close a specific property is, use our address map or SDG&E's interactive map.
About 1,500 people live across roughly 220 square miles of ZIP 92086. Many are retirees, ranching families and people who have spent decades here. Warner Unified School District serves local kids, and the community center on Highway 79 is where we meet, celebrate and organize.
A rural place like this has no city council to fight for it. The decision sits with state regulators in San Francisco, so our voices have to carry.
Long before it was called Warner Springs, the hot springs were the village of Kúpa, home of the Cupeño people. In 1903 the Cupeño were evicted from their homeland and moved to Pala, a removal remembered as their Trail of Tears. Their descendants are members of the Pala, Los Coyotes, Morongo and other bands today.
The Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians lives on the reservation in the hills just east of the valley. These are cultural landscapes, not empty land.
We do not speak for any tribe. Tribal governments speak for themselves in this process.
High-elevation vineyards along Highway 79 grow on mineral-rich soil with cool nights. They are small, family-run and depend on visitors who drive up for the views.
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The Golden Pacific Powerlink (GPP) is a proposed 500-kilovolt transmission line that SDG&E would build, own and operate. It would run about 145 to 150 miles from SDG&E's Imperial Valley Substation to a new substation near the San Diego–Orange County border, by San Onofre.
The state grid operator (CAISO) approved the need for the line in 2023. SDG&E's preliminary route crosses Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and then turns north along State Route 79 through Warner Springs, toward Lake Henshaw and Palomar Mountain. SDG&E has also floated alternatives, including routes through Borrego Springs and south of Palomar through Pauma Valley.
The line is built to move power between the desert and the coast, toward Orange County and the Los Angeles Basin. Warner Springs would carry the towers and the risk while the power flows elsewhere.
Drawn to one scale. Tower height as reported for this project; oak and house are typical sizes.
This isn't an abstract grid project. For the next half-century, it would shape what we see out the kitchen window, whether we can insure our homes, and how we get out when fire comes.
Much of the Warner Springs area is mapped by CAL FIRE as high or very high fire hazard. Cal Fire found SDG&E power lines started the 2007 Witch, Guejito and Rice fires. In July 2026 a fire burned nearly 700 acres near Warner Springs, close to where the line would run. High-voltage lines can also restrict where air tankers and crews can work.
Fire insurance is already hard to get and keep in the backcountry. Added ignition risk, towers in the view and the stigma of living near a high-voltage line can push premiums up and property values down.
Years of construction traffic, lane closures and heavy equipment on the road we use to evacuate, get to work, reach a hospital and bring visitors in.
Towers about 200 feet tall along our ridgelines and riparian corridor, with aircraft-warning lights possible at night under our dark skies.
500 kV lines crackle and hum, louder in wet weather. They also create a magnetic field near the line. The World Health Organization's cancer agency classifies these fields as a "possible" carcinogen, though the evidence is limited.
A right-of-way hundreds of feet wide through ranches, vineyards and riparian habitat. Utilities like SDG&E can use eminent domain to acquire right-of-way for approved projects. Know your rights: California law limits entry onto your land without your consent or a court order.
Many homes, ranches and vineyards here rely on wells and groundwater. Tower foundation work, which can involve deep drilling and sometimes blasting in rock, along with the large volumes of water used during construction, could lower water levels, cloud wells with sediment, or let drilling fluids and fuel reach the aquifer.
It isn't only our water. Vista Irrigation District owns the 43,000-acre Warner Ranch and pumps groundwater from its Warner wellfield to supplement Lake Henshaw, part of the supply for the roughly 135,000 people it serves in Vista and parts of Escondido, Oceanside and San Marcos. Under the San Luis Rey Indian Water Rights Settlement, water from this river system is also shared with the City of Escondido and the La Jolla, Pala, Pauma, Rincon and San Pasqual Bands of Mission Indians.
SDG&E's preferred route runs through Vista Irrigation District's Warner Ranch land. In October 2026, the VID board voted to oppose the Golden Pacific Powerlink because of the harm it could do to this water supply during and after construction.
Protect your well now: if you see that you are near where the proposed towers are planned, have your well water tested and document the static water level after the well has not been pumped for several hours (the distance from the top of the ground to the top of the water). If dewatering or contamination occurs due to construction, you will have a historic baseline. Residents can ask the CPUC to require SDG&E to pay for independent monitoring of wells near the route and to provide replacement water if a well is harmed.
The route threatens the setting of the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House, a National Historic Landmark on the old emigrant and Butterfield stage route, and landscapes sacred to the Cupeño and Cahuilla people.
Warner Springs depends on visitors and property taxes: small family wineries, ranches, and hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail. Visitors drive up for the view. Steel towers take that away.
Building a 500 kV line takes several years. Based on how projects like this are typically built, here is what that could mean for Warner Springs:
SDG&E has not yet released construction details for this route. They will be in its CPUC application and the environmental review, and that is when we can push for limits.
These are the official maps SDG&E has published for the project. The route is preliminary and SDG&E says it can change, which is exactly why our letters matter now. Open the full-size versions on SDG&E's site to zoom in on Highway 79.
SDG&E MAP 1
Preliminary routing corridor
(Figure 1, Project Vicinity)
SDG&E MAP 2
Proposed route with alternatives
(Figure 1, Project Vicinity)
Simplified sketch for orientation only, not to scale. Rely on SDG&E's maps above for exact locations.
SDG&E expects to file its application with the CPUC in November or December. Once it does, a 30-day clock starts for formal protests. Letters sent now go into the record SDG&E files and put the CPUC's environmental team on notice about Warner Springs.
Use the template below or write your own. Two personal sentences matter more than two pages.
Our legal team can only represent Warner Springs as an intervenor in the CPUC case if we fund them.
If you see that you are near where the proposed towers are planned, have your well water tested and document the static water level after the well has not been pumped for several hours (the distance from the top of the ground to the top of the water). If dewatering or contamination occurs due to construction, you will have a historic baseline.
Send this page to two people on your road. Our goal is a letter from every address.
Wear your yellow shirt to Sponsor Group, Board of Supervisors and CPUC meetings.
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Paste into your email app. Highlighted text is what you still need to fill in. To mail a paper copy: CPUC Public Advisor's Office, 505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102.
public.advisor@cpuc.ca.govPuts your comment in front of the regulatorGPP@ascent.incConsultant preparing the CEQA reviewFind your state senator and assemblymember at findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.
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Once SDG&E files, formal protests are due within 30 days. Watch for our alert with the case number.
Date and place to be announced. Wear your yellow shirt.
Click any date, headline or summary to post a new update.
The CPUC decides this case on its formal record. As intervenors represented by experienced counsel, Warner Springs can put evidence and testimony before the Commission, respond to SDG&E's case and press for alternatives. Every dollar goes to that work.
Save Warner Springs is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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We have retained Myers Regulatory Law, a San Francisco firm whose attorneys practice before the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, the California Independent System Operator and the California courts. That is exactly where this decision will be made.
When SDG&E files, our attorneys will intervene in the CPUC proceeding on behalf of Warner Springs. As intervenors, our community's concerns go into the official record, where they must be answered rather than simply noted.
Decades of regulatory experience, including fourteen years at the California Public Utilities Commission itself, followed by a long private practice in utility regulation and clean energy advocacy. J.D., University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law; B.A., Stanford University.
About fourteen years representing clients in energy and utility proceedings before the CPUC. J.D., University of Oregon School of Law; B.A., UC Santa Barbara.
Firm details from myersreglaw.com. Please confirm the team bios and any statement of engagement with the firm before publishing.