Destructive Dutra Asphalt Plant Challenged
PR Release
For Immediate release Jan 15, 2011
Destructive Dutra Asphalt Plant Challenged
https://www.saveshollenberger.com/
Donations to Legal Defense Fund Needed
Friends of Shollenberger
PO Box 2114
Petaluma, CA 94953
The City of Petaluma, community groups and individual citizens seek a legal
remedy to protect the environment from Dutra's asphalt plant construction
and operations at Haystack Landing, Petaluma, Calif.
Today, the City of Petaluma and a large coalition of citizen groups and
individuals have filed a lawsuit challenging the Sonoma County Board of
Supervisors' flawed approval on Dec. 14, 2011, of the Dutra Haystack Landing
Asphalt and Recycling Plant. The Plaintiffs maintain that the Dutra Asphalt
Plant would blight the gateway to Sonoma County and Petaluma, harm the
health of residents, businesses and visitors, and negatively impact the
development of our local and regional economy. The factory would injure and
discourage birds, fish and wildlife which use the Petaluma River and Marsh.
Plaintiffs also assert that the Dutra factory operations would also destroy
the peace, beauty and appeal of the very popular and adjacent Shollenberger
Park.
After actively participating in the County's review and approvals process
over the past three years, the City of Petaluma, community organizations
including the Petaluma River Council, Friends of Shollenberger Park, Madrone
Audubon Society and Petaluma Tomorrow, along with thousands of individual
citizens, are frustrated and disappointed that this project has been
approved. The Plaintiffs have exhausted all other remedies with the County,
and are left with no choice other than to seek judicial review of the
approvals process and the impacts of the project itself.
"The County's review and approvals process, and the Dutra project itself,
are littered with numerous serious and irresponsible flaws," said Petaluma
River Council Director David Keller.
The County failed to properly apply the California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA), the county's General Plan, and land use law to identify the
impacts caused by the project, to find alternatives that were less harmful,
and to mitigate damages that were not otherwise avoidable, as required by
the law. CEQA was put in place by the State of California to help ensure
that our landscape, environment, health and well being would be protected
from harm. The County failed to properly produce the CEQA-required single,
clear, comprehensive and comprehensible Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
for the entirety of the project, leaving the public, other agencies, and the
decision makers ill-informed about project components, impacts and problems
contained in the final plans approved.
Sheri Chlebowski, President of Moms for Clean Air, stated: "Our children's
health and the welfare of all of our City's residents must not be put at
risk for the financial profit of one company."
The errors and omissions include:
- a patchwork of disorganized addenda and conclusions inadequately
describing an ever-changing project without supporting analysis;
- erroneous and misleading mapping of the River's navigable waterway and
high-pressure PG&E gas transmission pipelines located under Dutra's
riverfront parcel;
- unmitigated traffic congestion and diesel exhaust air pollution from over
145,000 truck trips per year;
- failure to accurately and adequately address significant loud noise,
odors, toxic and noxious emissions of gases and dusts from the asphalt
manufacturing operations;
- the assertion that the project is "river-dependent," when in fact it does
not include any barge and tug transport and unloading of rock, gravel and
sand at Dutra's properties. The project thus does not qualify for zoning and
land use changes, and could be located on a less environmentally-sensitive
site.
- the County ignored the fact that sufficient, unused asphalt manufacturing
capacity to serve the North Bay region's needs already exists without
Dutra's factory, as stated in the Draft EIR.
- the County failed to find any agreement by Shamrock Materials to make
their adjacent property and barge landing facilities available to Dutra for
receiving, unloading and transporting some 500,000 tons of sand and gravel
components for asphalt production. Shamrock, as an integral component of
the approved Dutra project, underwent no environmental review, even though
the county has required destruction of .48 acre of wetlands on Shamrock's
property to construct a conveyor belt to Dutra's site.
- the County failed to honor and abide by the November 1998 Sonoma County
voters' decision to protect the Dairy Belt Scenic Corridor against
intensification and industrialization of agricultural and commercial lands.
This voter-protected Scenic Corridor, in an area paralleling Highway 101
from the Marin County line to the southern edge of Petaluma, includes the
Dutra parcels. Instead, the County dismissed the voters' mandate and changed
the land use and zoning to give Dutra the industrial designations that they
wanted, without seeking the voter approvals required for that change.
"Our county's elected officials have failed to use the laws in place to
protect the electorate and the environment. Public parks and trails are
crucial for the health and well-being of the community, especially in tough
economic times, and must be protected," said Joan Cooper, spokesperson for
Friends of Shollenberger Park.
After some 100 years of abuse, filling, diking, development and
destruction, the tidal wetlands of San Francisco and San Pablo Bays, along
with their important tributaries such as the Petaluma River and Marsh, have
been undergoing revitalization, renewal, restoration and preservation during
the past 40 years. These tidal wetlands and rivers are essential to our
region for fish and wildlife, water quality, recreation, commerce and flood
management, and are the foundation of our regions' attractiveness and
wealth. Millions of public and private dollars have been invested in the
restoration and preservation of the upper Petaluma River and Marsh,
including the city-owned Shollenberger Park, Alman Marsh, and the Ellis
Creek Water Recycling facility with their popular trails, vistas and
wildlife. Building and operating the Dutra asphalt manufacturing factory in
the midst of these publicly-owned natural resources would destroy the work
done by thousands of people and businesses, striving to return the river
gateway for Petaluma and Sonoma County to its vibrant and productive
identity.
The County's Brown Act violations are a significant barrier to public
participation.
The County further compounded the erroneous and inadequate project review
under CEQA by committing serious Brown Act and procedural violations. The
Plaintiffs are demanding that the Board of Supervisors correct the
substantial flaws of their December 14, 2010 public hearing and project
approvals. The Board of Supervisors denied the public its right to comment
on over 100 pages of critical new information released just hours prior to
this final meeting. These documents were released without proper notice and
distribution to public and agencies which had requested notification. No one
from the public, including Petaluma's elected officials, were allowed to
comment on the new information prior to the Supervisors vote to approve the
project. The Supervisors also did not properly introduce and approve the two
resolutions and ordinance approving the project and the environmental report
and changing the land use designations for the site. This is a violation of
state law and good public policy.
"We are proud of the important work done by residents, businesses and
organizations in Petaluma to protect our community's values, well-being and
economy. The City of Petaluma unanimously joins with them to defend and
protect our city and the gifts that surround us," said Petaluma Mayor David
Glass.
