Staff Writer

LAKE ELSINORE ---- A group of residents in the Rancho Capistrano area filed a complaint with the Riverside County district attorney's office Thursday, accusing the local water district of misuse of public funds in connection with its bid to build a power line in the hills above Lake Elsinore. The complaint accuses three board members of  making unsafe investments when it hired two Washington lobbying firms to work with legislators and help it secure a corridor for a high-voltage power line through the Cleveland National Forest. Copies of the complaint also went to the offices of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Temecula.

One of the women who filed the complaint said the group is concerned with fire risk and visual blight.

"We figured there is no other way to stop this project," said Rancho Capistrano resident Kris Estenger. "I am very angry because we live in the middle of forest and (power lines) represent a big fire threat," said Kathy Mead, who also signed the complaint. The lines also represent a threat to property values, she said.

The complaint asks the district attorney's office to issue criminal indictments against current Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District board members Phil Williams and Kristine Anderson, as well as former board member Gary Kelley, for the alleged misuse of public funds. It also asks the district attorney to order the water district to stop funding the lobbying firms with ratepayer money.

A spokeswoman with the district attorney's office, Ingrid Wyatt, said Thursday that Supervising Deputy District Attorney Richard West will review the complaint and decide what action to take, if any. Wyatt said she didn't know when that review would be completed.

"These are some pretty serious allegations," said water district spokesman Greg Morrison. He said the water district board members mentioned in the complaint are out of town and once they return they will confer with attorneys for the district before deciding how to proceed.

In 1997, the water district and Vista-based Nevada Hydro Inc. signed a development agreement to co-develop a hydroelectric plant in the hills west of the lake. The project calls for the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumping Station to pump water from the lake up the hill to a reservoir where it will be stored until night and then released to power turbines, as the water flows downhill and back into the lake.

In order to feed the energy produced by the $450 million hydroelectric plant into the state power grid north of the facility, transmission lines would have to be built. The water district and Nevada Hydro have proposed that since those connection lines would be necessary anyway, the project be expanded to beef up the power lines and extend them to San Diego County to the south. That additional $350 million investment would then create a major power connection between the two counties.

Both projects have met with intense opposition from a coalition of homeowners and property owners, who say the projects represent a severe fire threat and a visual blight to the area ---- allegations that the water district denies.

The projects are dependent on two things: a government-approved pathway for the transmission lines; and investors willing to put up the money to build the project. And the water district and Nevada Hydro have failed to secure a willing investor.

At the urging of Nevada Hydro, the water district hired the two lobbying firms last fall at a cost of $10,000 a month each for their work. Water district documents show their job was "to assist Congressman Issa and Congressman (Ken) Calvert in the formulation and passage of federal legislation supporting a transmission alignment through the Cleveland National Forest."

Issa has a bill, House Resolution 1230, in the House of Representatives, which has yet to be voted on. Language from that bill was also included in the House Energy bill recently approved by Congress. The Senate version of the same bill is expected to be voted on in the near future. Should that bill be approved, a final version will be hammered out in conference between the House and Senate, before going to the president for his signature.

Resident Mead said Issa's legislation represents an even bigger threat to the forest than the Elsinore Valley. "It opens up the forest so that anybody could use the (power line) easement in the future, even if EVMWD's project fails," she said.

 According to the original development agreement, Nevada Hydro is to repay any costs the district incurs, once the project reaches completion, water district spokesman Morrison said. However, if the project should not come together, the company would not have to pay the district back, under the existing agreement, he said. Should that happen, the water district would have to figure out some way to try to get its money back, he added.

Several local activists who are against the hydro and power-line projects have objected to the arrangement, saying that the water district in essence is gambling with ratepayer money for a payoff that may never come.

Resident Estenger said that since the water district has tried unsuccessfully for nearly six years to find an investor willing to put up the money, the chances of the ratepayers being left holding the bag are great.

"If it's such a great project, where are the investors?" she asked.

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or wbennett@californian.com.