East County Pushes Back on Every Powerlink Route as TB Gaps Expose Public Health Blind Spots
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The San Diego County Board of Supervisors convened its Land Use session Wednesday morning with the SDG&E Golden Pacific Powerlink at the center of proceedings. SDG&E released alternative route options ahead of Tuesday's General Legislative Session hearing, and the response from East County communities was, according to East County Magazine, significant organized opposition to every alternative presented. The underlying argument is not about any single corridor: residents describe decades of disproportionate infrastructure burden placed on inland communities — transmission lines, substations, and industrial facilities — and are reading the Powerlink, however it is ultimately routed, through that accumulated grievance.
SDG&E's position is that the infrastructure is necessary for regional energy reliability, a claim grounded in the state's renewable energy transition and San Diego County's geographic constraints. East County advocates, however, are pressing whether route-selection analysis adequately accounts for cumulative community impacts or optimizes primarily for engineering and right-of-way cost. While the California Public Utilities Commission holds final permitting authority over a project of this scale, the Board's formal response carries significant weight in the Sacramento process.
Separately, the Board's Tuesday session also addressed a vote on ending Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection access to two county firing ranges at Otay Mesa and Camp Elliott — a decision with direct operational consequences for federal border enforcement training and one that reflects the sustained tension between county government and federal immigration authorities that has defined San Diego politics for much of the past decade.
Two geographically distinct but thematically linked public health situations demand attention in parallel. A drug-resistant tuberculosis case has been reported at a La Jolla care center; as of the latest verified reporting, the specific facility, number of cases, exposure timeline, and full public health response have not been detailed publicly. Separately, an inspection report at Otay Mesa Detention Center found shortcomings in the facility's notification procedures around contagious illness, including tuberculosis — a finding the county obtained only after pursuing federal court access to inspect the site. Drug-resistant TB requires more intensive, longer-duration treatment with more limited options than standard TB, and any gap between case identification and public or resident notification carries clinical, not merely procedural, significance. The absence of a detailed county public health statement on the La Jolla case is itself informative.