Final Dutra Asphalt Plant Vote, Next Tuesday, Sonoma County Environmental Politics

Hey Waccoons,

I just sent this email to my Environmental Activist lists:

Sonoma County Environmental Politics

Final Dutra Asphalt Plant Vote, 12/14, Supervisors Meeting

Dear Friends Concerned With The Ecosystem of Sonoma County,

Next week, the final vote for the Dutra Asphalt plant will be taken by the Sonoma County Supervisors.

Late yesterday evening they voted to grant an easement for access to the Roblar gravel quarry, which will cross environmentally protected habitat for the endangered Tiger Salamander, abrogating open space agreements already in place.

Supervisor Efren Carrillo voted against that easement grant, but Supervisor Valerie Brown voted for it, along with the two out-going Supervisors Kelly and Kerns. It passed.

Supervisor Carrillo has gone back on forth on votes for Dutra, first against, then for. It's likely he will vote for final passage next Tuesday.

Unless sufficient pressure is placed on him, by lobbying, in the next few days. It's worth a shot, here's how to contact him:

Telephone: (707) 565-2241 Work
Fax: (707) 565-3778 Work Fax
Email: * [email protected]
* or [email protected]

Supervisors Meeting info:

https://supervisors.sonoma-county.or...1002&evnt=1104

Note that the public part of Supervisors Meetings usually start at 2:00 p.m. But by then, next Tuesday, they will have held the final vote for or against the Dutra Asphalt Plant. They have that vote scheduled for closed session that morning. So if you wish to tell Supervisor Carrillo your views, be sure to convey them ASAP and prior to Tuesday.

This is what I wrote on Facebook this afternoon, about my experience of yesterday's meeting. While it's about a separate issue, monitoring water flow on the Russian River during the winter when grape growers suck water out of it to spray on their vines to protect them from frost damage, read the statement from Dennis Rosatti following my brief account, for an overview and the connection between all of these specific issues.

***

Spent the afternoon at the Sonoma County Supervisors meeting. Listening to environmental leaders state that cutting them out of the decision making process to craft a water extraction monitoring plan crafted by the "farmers" was a bad idea. In this area the farmers grow grapes, for wine. The population of salmonids has dropped 97% since 2002 on the North Coast of California. A major contribution to this is the pumping of water from the Russian River in the winter, on frosty mornings to spray on the vines to prevent frost damage.

There was a real disconnect between the two sides. And the emphasis was, as usual, on the bureaucratic minutia of intersecting legal, scientific, economic and regulatory issues.

All impassionate and measured, save one farmer and one environmentalist, and they were mannered as well.

For all the beauty of wine country, it's a monoculture. All your eggs in one basket is cruising for a bruising.

If I were a small aircraft pilot, I would not want to fly over Sonoma or Napa counties. If I had to put down, it would be like landing in a WWI no man's land. All those metal stakes would tear me and my plane to shreds!

I love wine, I love salmon. To drink and to eat. And to know they're out there.

Just a small part of the damage we're doing to ourselves and our home.

Still, the tourists like it! And money's hard to come by these days...

Our board votes 4 to 1 in favor of business interests (builders, vintners, etc.) consistently. Today it was unanimous to continue the plan until the next meeting, where full approval is pretty much a forgone conclusion.

When I arrived for the meeting, I asked where I could pick up either a torch, or a pitchfork.

***

This is the Director of SCCA's statement during the Public Comments section of the meeting after 2:00 p.m. It pretty much sums up the issues at hand when it comes to the environment in Sonoma County and the Supervisors pro-development pattern of decisions.
---

Madam Chair and Members of the Board,

My name is Dennis Rosatti, Executive Director of Sonoma County Conservation Action.

My comments today pertain to frustration that I and many others are feeling in the environmental community about this current Board’s pushing through of a resource extraction agenda, prior to losing two members to retirement. In the next 8 days, this board is poised to approve Dutra Asphalt Plant in Petaluma, Syar Gravel mining project in the Russian River, the Berrella rock quarry on Roblar Road, and the wine industry’s self-regulated Frost Protection Ordinance. It is a slap in the face of the Sonoma County voter to rush these major, decades long impacts through the process just to capture votes that may or may not be on the Board come January.

I would like to voice Conservation Action’s disapproval of these actions, and say that you can do better. I’ve heard from many of my own members and colleagues over the past few weeks/months, and there is a general feeling of discontent with the way the County is being run. The message the citizen or advocate is getting, is that the Supervisor’s are going to do what they want, extract the resources, and if the public has an issue with that, sue us. What kind of government is that? It’s certainly not the one that the voters thought they were electing when casting votes on Election Day. And by casting these votes in lame duck session, there is no accountability going forward for the two who are retiring, yet the projects and their decades-long impacts remain, and the public must deal with them.

I would offer a challenge, to the three Supervisors who will remain on the Board to change course; at a minimum slow down the process. Do not allow the public of Sonoma County, who have time and time again expressed their preference for the environment, at the polls and through various programs and initiatives, to be marginalized by industry and big money interests that seek to profit off the natural resources we enjoy here in Sonoma County. You all project an image of being a friend of the environment during campaign time- now is an excellent time to prove it. You were not elected to serve resource extraction industries, even if they gave you contributions in your campaigns. The voter elected you to do the people’s business, and to steward the local environment in a way that promotes and protects what are the commons- the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the landscape we enjoy. Please alter the course you are on away from this resource extraction agenda.

Thank you for your time.

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Please note that I, Miles Mendenhall, am not a representative of SCCA. Although I have long supported the organization and once spent an evening trying out as one of their paid canvassers. I found it wasn't for me.

I only met Dennis Rosatti for the first time yesterday afternoon, and he did not ask me to share his statement with anyone. I provide it here as it is a good overview of the dilemma we currently face with our county level elected leaders.

SCCA does not in any way endorse anything I've written here. Even though it and its members may agree with some parts. But who knows? I haven't asked them. I am in no way speaking or writing for, or on the behalf of, Sonoma County Conservation Action.

***

Time is short, perhaps the fix is already in, but we can let Supervisor Carrillo know there will be a price to be paid for siding with development interests (who heavily funded his campaign for election two years ago) in his reelection in two years. Maybe he'll listen and actually do the sensible thing. It's worth a shot.

Miles Mendenhall
Forestville

Activist:

Global Justice Direct Action Network Sonoma County (2000-2003)
No Spray Action Network (2000-2003)
Various other organizations and causes, past and present, in hope for the future.