By Matthew Hirsch

The California Public Utilities Commission approved a controversial high-voltage transmission line Aug. 19, a project that pitted San Mateo County residents against southeast San Franciscans who want Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to shut down its polluting Hunters Point power plant.

Yet the project could leave both communities to deal with potential health and safety hazards.

The Jefferson-Martin transmission line, extending 27 miles from Redwood City north to Brisbane, would expose peninsula residents to electromagnetic fields, which they fear may pose health risks. And even though the increased transmission capacity could clear the way for the Hunters Point plant to close once the line is completed late next year, it doesn't by itself guarantee Bayview-Hunters Point residents will achieve this long-sought goal.

The southeast part of town has long been a polluting hub of power generation. The city currently is looking to build three 48-megawatt power generators east of Potrero Hill, seeking in the process to shut down Mirant Corp.'s Potrero power plant.

Even with the uncertainty ahead, Greg Asay, legislative aide to Sup. Sophie Maxwell, called the CPUC decision "a watershed moment."

"To me, it is an environmental justice victory," Asay told the Bay Guardian.

A representative of Mayor Gavin Newsom joined Asay at the CPUC to voice support for the project, but neither could claim total backing from the community after a protracted effort to rally Bayview-Hunters Point residents and environmental activists behind the project fell short.

"As bad as we want to shut down that plant, we think it's wrong to inflict harm on anybody else's community," Greenaction organizer Marie Harrison told us.

Harrison said Greenaction opposed the transmission project because it was concerned about the potential electromagnetic-field impacts and because PG&E hadn't made a convincing case that the power line was absolutely necessary to shut down its Hunters Point plant.

Of all the opposition to the transmission line, the most surprising criticism came from CPUC commissioner Geoffrey Brown, who blasted Newsom and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for their "indifference" to the project. A former San Francisco district attorney, Brown said he was put off by the city's relative absence from early discussions about the transmission project while San Mateo County was well represented.

"I have never seen a project so vital to the city so abandoned by its representatives," Brown said during the meeting.

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