PG&E officials were confronted with a big, angry crowd Tuesday night during a public meeting to discuss plans for a substation that could be built in the bucolic Gilroy countryside.
Nearly 200 residents from the winding Redwood Retreat Road area, a county-designated scenic lane and tourist-oriented wine trail at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains west of the city, aimed barbed and blunt questions at approximately six sometimes uneasy company spokespersons, engineers and subject experts.
The energy giant plans to build a new substation in South County to ensure reliable service and avoid massive blackouts as the area grows. It has picked eight potential sites, most in and around Morgan Hill.
But it’s the lone Gilroy option, a 10-acre parcel on Redwood Retreat Road, home of endangered and protected species of wildlife, fragile riparian grassland and mountain habitats that has residents and others, including Native Americans, fighting mad and fighting back.
“This is the most sensitive area in the watershed, what are you thinking?” demanded an incredulous Herman Garcia to thunderous applause from the overflow crowd just after 7 p.m. in a reception room at Fortino Winery on Hecker Pass Highway.
Garcia is the founding president of the Gilroy-based conservation group Coastal Habitat Education and Environmental Restoration, CHEER. It works closely with local, state and federal agencies to protect the Pajaro River watershed and Monterey Bay.
“You don’t know what you are stepping into,” he said after listing endangered and threatened species in the area, from bald eagles and tiger salamanders to the federally protected steelhead.
And then, citing a past case of a local, wealthy resident killing a dozen steelhead and ending up broke and in federal prison, he had this to say to PG&E:
“You can’t beat me. I will destroy you if you ever consider putting a shovel in the ground; you mess with our protected resources you are going to [have to] fight the U.S. Attorney General’s office.”
After the applause for Garcia settled down, Nicole Markowitz of PG&E asked to meet with him privately.
Markowitz and colleague Don Hall fielded most of the questions about the utility’s South County Power Connect project, but residents took to shouting out questions and speaking over one another, so some went unanswered.
Toward the end of the meeting, a man asked why the substation couldn’t be built in the urban boundaries of Gilroy.
The answer seemed to be that a city location would be more expensive and that the utility needs to locate the substation in a place that is close to existing power lines and environmentally acceptable.
Kevin Corcoran expressed concerns about water contamination from the substation, saying a well near the site supplies residents’ water.
“If that well goes [out], 80 homes are screwed,” he said.
Hall and others stressed that after PG&E early next year narrows its choice to one preferred site and two alternatives, the California Public Utilities Commission will make the final decision and it might not pick the site PG&E wants. They urged residents to make their views known to the PUC.
One resident asked how many times the PUC had turned down a PG&E proposal.
To the surprise of many, Markowitz said that it has been a long time since PG&E had tackled anything this big.
Echoing Garcia, Phill Laursen of Gilroy urged PG&E to consult with Native Americans, saying, “This is their spiritual land.”
Santa Clara County Supervisor Mike Wasserman helped arrange the meeting, one of several to be held, and repeated PG&E’s sentiments about residents contacting the PUC. He said his office is following the matter closely.
More information about South County Power Connect can be found at: http://bit.ly/2bvqisi.
