LADWP: Proposed Substation Sites to Receive Environmental Evaluations

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power provided an update to Pacific Palisades residents in early May about the long-debated distribution station 104.

The letter comes more than a month after members of the Pacific Palisades Community Council said stalls and lack of transparency discredit the process handled by the DS 104 Task Force and LADWP to find a new substation site in the community.

The letter from General Manager Ron Nichols reads as follows:

An Open Letter to the Pacific Palisades Community:

We have greatly appreciated the input and participation of the Pacific Palisades community regarding the future location of a new electrical distribution station (DS 104) serving the Palisades. This remains a critical project for both the L.A. Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and for Palisades residents and businesses who depend on reliable electricity every day.

The proposed DS 104 is needed to improve power reliability. Currently, the power load is now being distributed by only one existing distributing station in Pacific Palisades (DS-29). The heaviest power load is also being distributed on circuits that are furthest away from DS-29, which impacts reliability for the entire area. There is no space at the station to build more capacity, and we have not selected a site for the new distribution station.

The Task Force—appointed last year by Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, LADWP, and the Los Angeles Unified School District—has done a herculean job of evaluating potential sites and navigating through challenging issues. We thank them for generously giving their time to identify 16 potential locations for DS 104. The process and the Task Force’s tiered recommended sites were discussed during a , attended by more than 200 people. Written comments collected at the forum and over subsequent weeks have been posted online at www.ladwp.com/ DS104.

Now it is time to move forward. It typically takes six years to evaluate, design and construct a new power distributing station, and this project is still in the initial phase. LADWP is currently looking at the technical feasibility of all the potential sites that have been identified. The next step will be the formal environmental evaluation of the most feasible sites. The environmental evaluation is expected to begin this summer under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Please be assured that we are not done talking with the community about the project and receiving your input. The CEQA process provides several prescribed opportunities for community and public input. The public will be able to review and comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Report as well as the Final Environmental Impact Report. The completed environmental evaluation, along with the engineering feasibility studies, will be considered by the Board of Water and Power Commissioners during an open meeting where the public can make additional comments. Public input will weigh heavily in the Board’s decision making process.

We encourage you to visit the project website, www.ladwp.com/DS104, for updates and other project information. We are committed to continue working with the community on finding a feasible and compatible location for DS 104 as we move into the CEQA phase.

Sincerely,

Ronald O. Nichols
General Manager
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

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