CPUC Approves Proposed Project
Introduction
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In accordance with CEQA, the CPUC, as the Lead Agency, is required to conduct a review of the environmental impacts of the proposed project and has prepared an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). This site provides access to public documents and information relevant to the CEQA review process. Additional project information and documentation will be posted as it becomes available.
Construction of the project is anticipated to being in September 2017. Information about the CPUC’s monitoring of construction activities for environmental compliance is provided under Construction and Mitigation Monitoring below.
Si usted necesita más información en español, por favor, llame al (844) 538-6992.
如果你想了解项目的信息(国语)，请打电话 (844)538-6992.
Quick Links
- Project Description
- Project Location
- Application and Proponent’s Environmental Assessment
- Data Requests and Responses
- Public Scoping and Notice of Preparation of an EIR
- Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Public Comment Period
- Final Environmental Impact Report
- Final Environmental Impact Report Errata
- Commission Decision
- Construction and Mitigation Monitoring
- Administrative Law Judge's Proceeding
- Additional Information
Project Description
Major components of the Mesa Substation Project include the following:- Construction of the 500/220/66/16-kV Mesa Substation and demolition of the existing 220/66/16-kV Mesa Substation in the City of Monterey Park. The substation would be located at the existing Mesa Substation site but would result in a 69.4-acre footprint expanded from the current 21.6-acre footprint.
- Removal, relocation, modification, and/or construction of transmission, subtransmission, and distribution structures within SCE-owned properties, rights-of-way (ROW s), and franchise areas in the cities of Monterey Park, Montebello, and Commerce and portions of unincorporated Los Angeles County to accommodate the new substation configuration.
- Installation of two new telecommunications lines and reroute of one existing telecommunications line within the cities of Monterey Park, Montebello, and Rosemead, and portions of unincorporated Los Angeles County.
- Reroute of existing telecommunications lines inside the perimeter fence lines of Vincent, Pardee, and Walnut Substations.
- Conversion of an existing distribution line from overhead to underground between three street lights within the City of Bell Gardens.
- Replacement of a section of a Metropolitan Water District 72-inch-diameter water line within the Mesa Substation property and adjacent northern transmission ROW with an 84-inch-diameter water line.
- Installation of a temporary 220-kV circuit loop-in at Goodrich Substation in Pasadena to allow for continued service to Pasadena during required outages for the 220-kV line.
- Replacement of 220-kV line termination equipment at the existing Laguna Bell and Lighthipe Substations.
- Upgrades to various 66-kV and 220-kV line protection relays and/or telecommunications equipment inside the existing Mechanical Electrical Equipment Rooms (MEERs) at 27 satellite substations across the Electrical Needs Area (ENA).
Construction of the new 500/220/66/16-kV substation and demolition of the existing 220/66/16-kV substation would occur in phases. Phase 1 would consist of grading and initial site development on the western portion of the project site. Phase 2 would consist of construction of the first half of the new Mesa Substation. During Phase 1 and 2, the existing substation on the eastern portion of the site would remain operational in order to maintain electrical service to customers during construction. Phase 3 would consist of demolition of the existing substation and construction of the second half of the new substation on the eastern portion of the site. Construction of the Mesa Substation Project is anticipated to begin in 2017 and would take approximately 4.5 years.
Project Location
The Proposed Project is located in Los Angeles County, California, primarily in the City of Monterey Park where the existing 220/66/16-kV Mesa Substation would be demolished and the new 500/220/66/16-kV Mesa Substation would be constructed. Other major components will be located within portions of Monterey Park, Montebello, Rosemead, South El Monte, Commerce, Bell Gardens, Pasadena, Industry, Santa Clarita, and in portions of unincorporated Los Angeles County.
Application and Proponent’s Environmental Assessment
SCE filed an application (A.15-03-003) for a PTC and Proponent's Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the proposed project on March 13, 2015. The PEA provides information to begin the independent environmental review process conducted by the CPUC. On April 2, 2015, the CPUC sent a deficiency letter to SCE, which requested additional information needed in order to deem the application complete. SCE provided a response to Deficiency Letter #1 on April 30, 2015. Following review of SCE’s response, the CPUC deemed the application complete on May 15, 2015.
- SCE Application
- CPUC Deficiency Letter #1
- SCE Response to Deficiency Letter #1
- CPUC Application Completeness Letter
Data Requests and Responses
The CPUC reviewed the application and PEA to identify additional data needed from the Applicant to complete the environmental review process. The CPUC submitted data requests to the applicant for specific information to support the environmental review process. Those requests and the applicant's responses are included below.
During the public comment period for the Draft EIR, SCE submitted a comment letter to the CPUC. After reviewing the comment letter, the CPUC sent a data request to SCE. SCE provided responses on 7/15/16 and 8/3/16. The requests and responses are included in the table below.
| CPUC Request | Response | Attachments |
| Data Request #8 - to SCE (7/22/16) |
DR #8 Response (8/4/16) |
Response Attachments |
During the public comment period for the Draft EIR, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) submitted a comment letter to the CPUC. After reviewing the comment letter, the CPUC sent a data request to CAISO and received a response as indicated below.
| CPUC Request | Response | Attachments |
| Data Request #1 - to CAISO (7/20/16) | CPUC received CAISO’s response on 8/3/16 | N/A |
After the release of the Draft EIR (April 2015), the following data requests were submitted to the CPUC. The responses to these data requests have been provided to assist the parties in providing comments on the Draft EIR.
| SCE Request | CPUC's Response | Attachments |
| Data Request #1 (5/16/16) | DR #1 Response (5/23/216) | Attachment 1 (Written Responses to SCE’s Data Request) |
Public Scoping and Notice of Preparation of an EIR
On June 5, 2015, the CPUC published a Notice of Preparation (NOP) indicating that an EIR would be prepared. The NOP, which includes a figure depicting an overview of project components, is located here.
Publication of the NOP initiated a public comment period beginning June 5, 2015, and ending at 5:00 pm on July 5, 2015. All interested parties, including the public, responsible agencies, and trustee agencies, were invited to learn more about the project, ask questions, and present comments about the Mesa Substation Project at the public scoping meeting. The scoping meeting was held on June 23, 2015 at the Langley Center, located at 400 W. Emerson Avenue in the City of Monterey Park, California from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. A copy of the PowerPoint presented at the scoping meeting is located here.
In addition, all interested parties were invited to provide written scoping comments via mail, fax, or e-mail to the CPUC during the NOP comment period specified above.
Comments received during the scoping period will be considered during preparation of the
Mesa Substation Project EIR. The following comments were received during the scoping period:
| Written Comments Received during the Scoping Period | ||
| Name | Affiliation | Date Received |
| Local and Regional Agencies | ||
| Barbara Radlein | South Coast Air Quality Management District | 6/23/15 |
| Dianna Watson | California Department of Transport (Caltrans) | 7/1/2015 |
| Deborah Drezner | Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan) | 7/1/2015 |
| Joyce Kinnear | Silicon Valley Power (SVP) | 7/6/2015 |
| Tribal Representatives | ||
| Andy Salas | Chairman Of Gabrieleño Band Of Mission Indians/Kizh (Kit'c) Nation | 6/12/15 |
| Individuals and Organizations | ||
| Doug Ito | None | 4/2/2015 |
| Samuel B. Villalobos | None | 4/13/2015 7/4/2015 7/5/2015 |
| Victor Pelayo | None | 4/13/20151 |
| J.P. Wolk | None | 6/9/2015 |
| Saul Roe | None | 6/12/2015 |
| Oral Comments Received During Scoping Meeting | ||
| Samuel Villalobos | None | 6/23/2015 |
| Note 1Three separate emails were submitted by this commenter on the same date. |
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All scoping comments can be found here and are organized by the date that they were received.
Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Public Comment Period
As the CEQA Lead Agency, the CPUC prepared a Draft EIR for the proposed project in accordance with CEQA. Links to view the Notice of Completion, Notice of Availability, and Draft EIR are provided below. Hardcopies of the Drat EIR were available at the following repositories during the comment period:|
Monterey Park Library 318 S Ramona Avenue Monterey Park, CA 91754 (626) 307-1368 |
Montebello Library 1550 W Beverly Boulevard Montebello, CA 90640 (323) 722-6551 |
The CPUC initiated a 45-day comment period starting April 29, 2016 extending through June 13, 2016. The CPUC extended the comment period to 60 days, and accepted written comments on the Draft EIR through June 27, 2016. All written comments must have been postmarked or received by fax or email no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 27. The comment period is now closed
The CPUC held a public meeting on May 18, 2016, to explain the proposed project, discuss the proposed project’s significant impacts, and receive written comments on the Draft EIR from the public. The meeting began with a presentation, followed by an informal discussion session. Details for the public meeting are provided below:
May 18, 2016, 6:00 p.m.Barnes Park – Service Club House Main Room
350 S. McPherrin Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754
Link to the Presentation
The following comments were received on the Draft EIR:
| Written Comments Received on the Draft EIR | ||
| Name | Affiliation | Date Received |
| State and Local Agencies | ||
| Betty Courtney | California Department of Fish and Wildlife | 6/16/2016 |
| Deanna Watson | California Department of Transport (Caltrans) | 6/1/2016 |
| Jordan Pinjuv | California Independent System Operator | 6/27/2016 |
| Jillian Wong | South Coast Air Quality Management District | 6/10/2016 |
| Vivian Romero | City of Montebello | 6/22/2016 |
| City of Montebello, City Council Members | City of Montebello | 6/22/2016 |
| Jose Jimenez | City of Commerce | 5/31/2016 |
| Michael Huntley | City of Monterey Park | 6/23/2016 |
| Tribal Representatives | ||
| Andrew Salas | Chairman Of Gabrieleño Band Of Mission Indians/Kizh (Kit'c) Nation | 5/10/2016 |
| Non-Government Organizations | ||
| Margot Eister | Save Montebello Hills | 5/22/2016 |
| Yvonne Watson | Sierra Club | |
| Margot Eiser | Citizens for Open and Public Participation | 6/27/2016 |
| Josh Havelka | Barnhart Crane | 6/10/2016 |
| Individuals | ||
| Saul Roe | None | 4/30/2016 |
| James Flournoy | None | 5/1/2016 |
| Calvin Yoshitake | None | 5/18/2016 |
| Marc Blodgett | None | 5/18/2016 |
| Samuel Villalobos | None | 5/18/20161 |
| Samuel Villalobos | None | 5/18/20161 |
| Samuel Villalobos | None | 6/27/20161 |
| Henry Yew | None | 6/27/2016 |
| Yvonne Watson | None | 6/27/2016 |
| Applicant | ||
| Applicant | SCE | 6/27/2016 |
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Note
1Three separate comments were submitted by this commenter; two were received on 5/18/2016, and a third was submitted on 6/27/2016. |
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Final EIR
CPUC published the Final EIR on October 7, 2016. It includes comments on the Draft EIR, responses to comments on the Draft EIR, and revisions to the Draft EIR. The Final EIR is available electronically by clicking the link below.
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Final EIR
- Volume I/Volume II: EIR
- Volume III: Response to Comments
Hard copies of the Final EIR are available at the following libraries:
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Monterey Park Library
318 S Ramona Avenue Monterey Park, CA 91754 (626) 307-1368 |
Montebello Library
1550 W Beverly Boulevard Montebello, CA 90640 (323) 722-6551 |
Commerce Public Library
5655 Jillson Street Commerce, CA 90040 (323) 722-6660 |
Final EIR Errata
The Final EIR Errata may be viewed here.
Commission Decision
On February 9, 2017 the Commission granted SCE a PTC the Mesa 500 kV Substation Facility Project, with mitigation identified in the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Plan. The Commission Decision (Decision 17-02-015) can be viewed here.
Construction and Mitigation Monitoring
The CPUC developed a Mitigation Monitoring, Compliance, and Reporting Program (MMCRP) in coordination with SCE to provide guidance and procedures for environmental monitoring during project construction. The MMCRP is a tool to ensure compliance with the applicant proposed measures (APMs) and mitigation measures approved in the Final EIR.
The MMCRP can be viewed here. (3 MB)
A list of mitigation plans approved for the project can be found here.
The first phase of construction is expected to being in September 2017. The Notice to Proceed (NTP) approvals and monthly compliance reports will be posted to this website.
Notice to Proceed
The CPUC issues Notice to Proceed (NTPs) to the applicant for each phase of construction activity, after confirming that SCE has complied with pre-construction environmental requirements. Each NTP for the project is listed in the table below.
| NTP No. | Project Components/Phase | NTP Request from SCE | Date NTP Approved |
| 1 | Vegetation removal and grading, waterline relocation, OII well removal, and various line relocations (transmission, sub-transmission, distribution, and telecommunications). | NTPR-1 September 2017 | September 27, 2017 |
Construction Monitoring Reports
Monthly reports issued on construction progress as part of mitigation monitoring and compliance are listed here.
| Construction Month | Associated Notice to Proceed |
| None as of 8/17/2017 |
Administrative Law Judge’s Proceeding
For information about the proceeding or to find out how you can participate in the proceeding, please click the following link and enter the proceeding number (1503003):Link to the Proceeding
For Additional Information
To request additional information or to be added to the mailing list, please contact us by email, fax, or phone, as follows:
Project email:
Mesa.CPUC@ene.com
Project fax: 415-398-5326
Project voicemail: (844) 538-6992 (toll free)
The CPUC’s Project Manager is:
Lisa Orsaba, CPUC Project Manager
California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
Email:
Lisa.Orsaba@cpuc.ca.gov
Tel.: (415) 703-1966