Sierra Power Line Sabotaged; No Electricity Outages Result

A million-volt transmission line carrying power from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California was sabotaged by someone who toppled two supporting towers, officials said Saturday. No power outages were reported, however.

Guy wires to the towers holding the Pacific Intertie transmission line were cut Friday evening, toppling them and damaging three other towers nine miles north of this eastern Sierra Nevada community, said Ed Freudenburg, spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Communities nearby reported a drop in power at the time but there were no outages, Freudenburg said. The line was not carrying full capacity.

There was no question the damage was the work of vandals, he said. “The county sheriff has been notified and the FBI is doing an investigation,” he said. No similar acts of vandalism have occurred in the area recently, he noted.

The towers, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, are part of the 846-mile Pacific Intertie system that carries electricity from The Dalles, Ore. The line that was damaged transfers power to a station in Sylmar, Freudenburg said.

He said it was too early to determine the cost of repairs, but noted, “This is the largest amount of damage that has occurred to this type of line since the system was built in 1970.”

The direct-current line is capable of carrying up to 1 million volts of electricity, enough to illuminate two cities the size of Seattle, said Robert Reed, spokesman for the Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, Ore.

However, the line was not in heavy use at the time it was damaged, Freudenburg said. Crews have begun repairs and officials expect to have the line back in operation by the beginning of the week.

“The whole Pacific Intertie system had been due to be shut down for maintenance this weekend anyway,” he said. “The utilities using the line had planned to get along without it anyway.”

Reed said the line has not been heavily used in recent months because stream flows in the Pacific Northwest are 30% below normal, curtailing the generation of electricity.