North Coast water board sets action plan for Klamath River pollution
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board has released new guidelines and an action plan for limiting different kinds of water pollution in the Klamath River.
Posts Tagged ‘coast’
Coastal Voices Guest Opinion: Stakeholders continue MPA process
Coastal Voices Guest Opinion: Stakeholders continue MPA process [Daily Triplicate]
Today and Thursday, there are local meetings of the Regional Stakeholder Group (RSG) at the Elk Valley Rancheria conference room.
Today the meeting starts at 9:30 a.m.; on Thursday it continues at 8 a.m.
This is a meeting of the local people who have been selected to give input for the northern area’s process of sighting marine protected areas. This group is not responsible for the process; its members are dedicated locals who are trying to reduce the negative impacts these closures will cause.
CREG: Security National is stonewalling
The Citizens for Real Economic Growth are held a press conference this afternoon about what they call “stonewalling” by Security National/CUE VI to provide information to the California Costal Commission regarding the Balloon Track.
KHUM interviewed Neal Latt of CREG this morning, followed by Randy Gans of Security National.
Below is the CREG press release for the press conference:
Citizens for Real Economic Growth (CREG) was founded in 2005 as an grassroots educational endeavor to hold Union Pacific Railroad, then-owner of the Balloon Track property in Eureka, accountable for its legacy of intensive pollution of the property, and to advocate for an open process to determine the highest, best use of the site and then to help Eureka to proceed with that development.
Since that time, much has transpired in regard to the property. What has not changed is its condition: stagnation. The legal stage has evolved to the point at which certain information has been requested by the California Coastal Commission from the developer (CUE VI, a subsidiary of Security National), in order to proceed with the cleanup permit.
This information has not been yet been provided, and does not, to the best of our observations, appear to be forthcoming.
Today we call upon CUE VI and Security National to immediately provide the information requested of it by the Coastal Commission, so that a hearing on the cleanup permit may be held at the earliest possible time. Without this information, the Commission cannot make a decision, and the effort to achieve a cleanup of the Balloon Track cannot move ahead. When Security National bought the property in 2006, they knowingly and willingly assumed liability for doing the cleanup that Union Pacific and its predecessors had successfully avoided for decades. They made the purchase knowing that any proposed cleanup would have to comply with the Coastal Act – and importantly, they promised us they would do it.
Today we also call upon Virginia Bass and Jeff Leonard, and the alleged independent group “Citizens for a Better Eureka” to join us in demanding that CUE VI and Security National provide the information requested of it, so that the cleanup of the property may finally move forward. It is in no one’s interest for Security National to continue to withhold the necessary information and delay the process. Ms. Bass and Mr. Leonard, along with Frank Jager and Mike Jones, demanded a quick hearing by the Coastal Commission of the permit application in a press conference in this same location last December. If they are sincere in their expressed desire, they will join us to demand that the developer provide this necessary information to the Coastal Commission in the most expeditious manner possible.
Some of this requested information includes:
1) An Alternatives Analysis, to make the necessary findings that the proposed wetlands fill by the developer to control hazardous materials-entrained stormwater runoff on the site is the least environmentally damaging feasible alternative. This was requested because the Coastal Commission found that the City of Eureka’s approved Environmental Impact Report (EIR) “. . . provide(d) no substantive analysis of project alternatives that address other feasible options to the grading and filling of nearly 2/3 of the roughly 40-acre site that would achieve the same water quality objectives.”
2) A Hazardous Materials Contamination Assessment, which would provide “full characterization of the presence and extent of constituents of concern prior to approval of the Clark Slough wetland reserve component of the project.” As proposed by the developer, this component would entail extensive ground disturbance and “. . . the unearthing of heretofore subsurface material in an area that has been generally documented as contaminated with elevated levels of petroleum distillates, metals and polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins and furans, and could result in exposing the aquatic resources within the slough and, in turn, Humboldt Bay, to toxics which could have deleterious impacts on the biological productivity of water quality of areas and species of special biological or economic significance . . .”
3) Property Interest Information. Questions have been raised in regard to the location of the boundaries between public and private ownership at the site, and whether portions of the site may be subject to public trust review by the State Lands Commission. To the best of our knowledge, CUE VI and Security National have not, as of yet, provided the requested information to the Commission, in regard to:
a) when the property was acquired, and from whom;
b) the purchase price;
c) a copy of any title report, litigation guarantee or similar document that might have been prepared in connection with all or a portion of the property;
d) the historic chain of title for all property, both on and adjacent to the site, held by the landowner in common contiguous ownership;
e) information to establish lot legality for all APNs both on and adjacent to the site, held by the landowner in common contiguous ownership;
f) the location of all wetlands located on site, as well as the location of all areas of soil and groundwater contamination.
In conclusion, the Balloon Track isn’t getting any cleaner. The dry season when the work might be performed is nearly upon us. We assert that it is hypocritical for CUE VI and Security National to complain about the Coastal Commission asserting jurisdiction over a permit that they themselves sought in the first place. By the same measure, the frivolous lawsuit brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation in this regard is (at best) a waste of time, and appears to be a mechanism for stalling further scrutiny by the Coastal Commission of a flawed and deficient EIR. It further delays the cleanup that all of our community clearly wants to see begun. We, the citizens of Eureka, demand an end to the apparent stonewalling of the Commission’s request for information from the project applicant. The Balloon Track, Humboldt Bay, and we, the citizens of Eureka cannot wait any longer for this cleanup to proceed.
Thank you for your time today.
Celebrating a ‘miracle’
Celebrating a ‘miracle’ [Daily Triplicate]
Searchers provide account of how they found girl, 4
Four-year-old Zoey Dorsey, who was found alive Thursday after two
days and one night in the mountains near Brookings, was listed in good
condition Friday and expected to return home from the hospital today.
“We’re just so happy that she’s alive,” said Carrie Knudsen, Zoey’s great aunt.
On Friday, Zoey’s parents, Brooke and Chris, were with their
daughter at the hospital at the Oregon Health Sciences University in
Portland, where she was transferred after first being taken to Sutter
Coast Hospital.
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approve Headwaters funds for MLPA study
It looks like the Marine Life Protection Act’s Blue Ribbon Task Force will have a bit more information to mull over when considering how to implement the act on the North Coast.
Pleas made for Willits library, coast shelter
Public input took two-and-a-half hours Monday, before the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors discussed and acted on a set of recommendations from CEO Carmel Angelo on how to close the county’s projected $7.
North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board Meeting
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a public hearing on the Action Plan for the Klamath River Total Maximum Daily Loads Addressing Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Nutrient, and Microcystin Impairments in the Klamath River in California and Lost River Implementation Plan (Basin Plan Amendment Language), and the Proposed Site Specific Dissolved Oxygen Objectives for the Klamath River in California l on March 24-25, 2010, at the following location (note new location):
Eureka Public Marina
Wharfinger Building
#1 Marina Way
Eureka, CA 95501
North Coast all jazzed up: Redwood Coast Jazz Festival celebrates 20 years of music, community and singing in the rain
During the first Redwood Coast Jazz Festival 20 years ago, organizers remember placing the big white tents around downtown Eureka, the sound of music in the air and the pouring rain.
Humboldt team to survey Chile earthquake zone
Humboldt State University geologist Lori Dengler is traveling with a team to parts of Chile ravaged by an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in February in an effort to learn how the North Coast might better prepare for a major quake and tsunami.
Redwood Coast Music Festivals announces guild
Redwood Coast Music Festivals announced the formation of the RCMF Guild last week, in hopes of encouraging more support for the nonprofit’s community festivals from its local supporters.
Business Sense: Telling the story of the North Coast
Efforts to create the Redwood Coast National Heritage Area are gathering steam in Humboldt, Del Norte and Mendocino counties. Advisory committees, comprised of people with heritage, cultural, tribal, preservation and tourism credentials, have met
Obama urges Democrats to come together for health care
When the U.S. House of Representatives takes a controversial and historic roll-call vote on health care legislation today, North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St.
Thompson Predicts Health Care Bill Will Pass
North Coast Rep. Mike Thompson said Friday that House Democrats will come up with enough votes to pass the health care bill on Sunday. He now supports the bill, saying the overhaul will cut billions of dollars from the federal deficit.
North Coast Rhododendron Parade organizers set to pull it off — again
EUREKA — Flanked by supporters and sponsors who’ve come together to make the Rhododendron Parade happen again this year, the 2010 Grand Marshal Betty Chinn said that of all the awards and accolades she’s received in recent months for her public
County’s coast shelter closure proposed
“I’m not in the corner with those who want to close the [Fort Bragg] shelter. It’s not feasible financially or for the animals,” Sheriff Tom Allman told a gathering of animal welfare advocates last week.