The City of Norco has notified Southern California Edison (SCE) that it must clear various areas of dangerous, overgrown vegetation in its hazardous utility easements under and around the existing overhead transmission lines in River Trails Park along the Santa Ana River in Norco.

“As part of the company’s 2023-2025 Wildfire Mitigation Plan, SCE pledged its commitment to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its vegetation management activities to reduce the risk of vegetation-caused ignitions,” stated Mayor Kevin Bash. “We see that SCE is generally maintaining its utility easements in other areas, however, it has failed to maintain its easements along Norco’s portion of the Santa Ana River where it plans to construct a new, massive, above-ground transmission line. This lack of vegetation management is extremely concerning and presents peril to the Norco community.”

In recent years, Norco has faced a dramatic increase in the risk of catastrophic wildfires within its city limits, specifically in the riverbed. This risk will be increased exponentially by the construction of the Riverside Transmission Reliability Project (RTRP), which will construct an overhead, high-voltage transmission line that will pass through the aforementioned open space loaded with flammable vegetation in the very region that gave the notorious Santa Ana Winds their name. Since 2017, the City of Norco has communicated its concerns about and opposition to the RTRP. On February 14, 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision denying the City of Norco’s petition to reconsider the full undergrounding alternative of the RTRP. The CPUC will make a final determination on March 21, 2024.

The City of Norco urges SCE to take immediate action to clear the rampant vegetation in a notoriously dangerous area for wildfire and consider how the lack of vegetation management around overhead transmission lines can lead to devastating and deadly wildfires in small, wind-prone and fire-prone communities like Norco.

To view images of the described vegetation, visit www.norco.ca.us/SCEVegetation.  

For more information on the City of Norco’s efforts to underground the Riverside Transmission Reliability Project, visit www.norco.ca.us/RTRP.

For media inquiries, contact the City of Norco Communications Division at comm@ci.norco.ca.us.