Residents of one Napa Co. community fighting to have AT&T, Comcast underground their power lines

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- PG&E is rushing to bury power lines in rural Napa, an area where wildfire danger is never far from mind. Residents are turning their attention now to the power poles that are left behind that still carry other utilities. Two major players, AT&T and Comcast aren't budging.

As you drive up the Mount Veeder area in Napa, you quickly grasp the challenges of undergrounding power lines.

Poles here zig-zag to accommodate the winding road.

It's a terrain of green hills that turn dangerously dry in the warmer months. High winds in those conditions could knock down wires, starting a wildfire.

PG&E will spend about $3 million per mile to put their power lines in the ground, a distance of 57 miles. Do that math: $171 million.

We found a PG&E team explaining their plan to neighbors here, including Daniel McLoughlin.

"I think this will significantly reduce the fire risk at least from starting from these wires because they'll be underground, expressed McLoughlin.

But McLoughlin's positive attitude has diminished because he's been told those old wooden poles aren't going anywhere even after the work is done.

MORE: Undergrounding all utilities in SF is nearly impossible, according to officials: Here's why

In wildfires, those poles often come down and end up blocking access to roads for firefighters and evacuees.

"That's what has gotten me a little riled up because it does seem kind of, well... it just seems it's a common sense in a regulatory gap, something is missing in the picture," added McLoughlin.

Missing are AT&T and Comcast which share the poles with PG&E but according to McLoughlin, they refuse to underground their wires even though PG&E is already doing much of expensive heavy lifting.

"t seems to me it's leaving the job half done. The poles, these are from the 1940s and 50s okay, and so why are we keeping them when there's an opportunity to do much better than that?" he asked.

AT&T never responded to our calls and Comcast refused to comment.

The Supervisor representing the area believes it's a matter of funding and coordination by the California PUC.

"Would i like it to be done all at once? Absolutely. Do I want people to clean up after they go, take their poles and remove the wires once those telecommunications are underground? Absolutely. So I'm continuing to push for this," assured Liz Alessio, Napa County Supervisor for District 2.

This scenario has played out before, in places like Paradise, 90 miles north of Sacramento. We recently visited.

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The Mayor of Paradise showed us an area where the PG&E, AT&T and Comcast lines are buried.

"It's all underneath right here along where the roadway is," said Mayor Steve Crowder.

On November 8, 2018, 90% of the homes and businesses here were leveled by a fire which started 7 miles away in Pulga, by downed power lines due to high winds.

Eighty-six people died, some trapped because fallen power poles obstructed their escape route.

The poles went down across evacuation routes and actually shut down roads, so if you were heading in that direction, you would have to turn around and find another way out," explained Crowder.

The people of Paradise were clear, no more poles.

PG&E vowed to underground their lines, but, like in Mount Veeder area, there was resistance from the telecommunications companies, AT&T and Comcast.

"They felt that they had restored their equipment and didn't feel they wanted to invest anymore money to go underground. They believed that PG&E should pay for it," revealed Mayor Crowder.

MORE: PG&E working to curb growing number of wildfires started by own equipment

Paradise fought back hard and filed a complaint with the California PUC.

"With Comcast, the CPUC told them you might think about voluntarily undergrounding because if you don't, there's a good chance we'll rule against you," he added.

It took a few years but in the end, the PUC persuaded these companies to do the right thing for the people of Paradise which, back then, had suffered so many loses.

"Population wise we were 26,500 pre-fire, we're now pushing 12,000," said Crowder.

Today, Paradise has 21 siren towers throughout the town.

"It's been seven years, we figure this is a 20-year project before we are finally rebuilt totally. The people is what made people come back, the community," said Mayor Crowder.

Back to Mount Veeder, McLoughlin has reached out to the PUC in hopes of being heard.

"Leaving these half-empty poles with 1950s communication lines, if we can't do better than that, then something is wrong, that's all," said McLoughlin.

As of this week, PG&E, Comcast and AT&& have been invited to a round table discussion by Supervisor Alessio on how they can all collaborate and make this work.

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