Amador County – Amador County Supervisors in their last meeting of 2010 approved a letter to the California Department of Corrections notifying its director that a department decision to close the Preston Correctional Youth Facility violated state environmental law.

Deputy County Council Greg Gillott prepared the letter approved Dec. 21 and mailed Dec. 22. The letter to Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections, said its purpose was “to inform you that the recent decision to close the Preston” facility “appears to have been unlawful,” and out of compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. It requested a cease of the closure activities until the department complied with CEQA. It also asked for written notification by Dec. 31, 2010, or “the county will have no other alternative but to initiate legal proceedings, including a request for immediate injunctive relief.”

Gillott in the letter quotes rulings, including two that he said shows the “closure of Preston as project subject to CEQA,” and not exempt from CEQA. It also said the “closure decision is an activity directly undertaken by a public agency.”

The letter cited a 2004 suit against Yosemite Community College District, which successfully argued that closing the college shooting range and transferring it and classes to “another facility constituted the whole of an action and was a ‘project’ under CEQA.”

Gillot said in 2006, “the court concluded that there was “no dispute that the decision” to “close a (San Leandro) school and transfer students” is an “activity directly undertaken by any public agency.” He said “CDCR’s decision to close Preston is similarly, indisputably” an “activity directly undertaken by any public agency,” and satisfies “the first prong of whether the closure constitutes” a project under CEQA.

The letter noted that “closure of Preston will cause direct and indirect physical changes in the environment,” noting that the San Lorenzo ruling while it “may be unlikely that the closure of a single elementary school would have a significant environmental impact apart from its effect on the use of the property … the possibility cannot be rejected categorically.” The ruling said “transferring students to other locations would potentially cause significant effect on the environment.”

Gillott said, potential impacts could affect Amador Regional Sanitation Authority’s wastewater storage on Preston land. It could also increase the “potential for blight caused by a closed facility,” or impact the historic Preston Castle, or cause other impacts that “may be identified in a properly conducted initial study.”

The letter concluded that since the decision to close Preston was made without CEQA documentation, the “CDCR must immediately cease all further closure activities, at least until it has properly complied with CEQA.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 with one abstention Tuesday afternoon to deny three appeals on the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant, and in the same vote approved the electric generating plant’s permit to operate.

Supervisors held an appeal hearing and discussed three appeals, hearing from the applicant, citizens who appealed the project, and from consultants who wrote the Subsequent Environmental Impact Report for the plant, which will burn woody biomass waste, in a nearly 30-year-old facility on Coal Mine Road.

The Former Co-Gen plant could be a $25 million project, and bring $250,000 in tax revenue to the county.

More than 50 people attended the morning hearing, and more than 30 remained at the end, including Buena Vista Biomass applicant, Michael J. Muston, president and CEO of Otoka Local Renewable Energy of Bloomington, Minnesota.

Appellant Kevin Bundy, chief attorney for the “Center for Biological Diversity” spoke to the board, and county staff and consultants, with his concerns. County consultant on environmental law, special counsel Al Herson addressed the EIR, and said one issue at question was whether a new EIR was merited.

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse asked if the county EIR consultants, Ascent Environmental, wrote an “affirmatively misleading EIR,” as Bundy alleged. Herson said, that would mean that Ascent would have tried to “mislead the public about impacts,” and Herson said he did not believe that was true.

Herson said he worked with Ascent since the beginning of the process, and believed a “good faith effort” was made for “full disclosure” of the plant’s impacts.

He said it may have been a “failure to communicate”, as commenters wanted a new EIR. Herson said the Subsequent EIR was done because it was connected to an existing permit for the plant. He said “all of the impacts of this project are treated as new”, and the EIR used a non-operating plant as the base, to measure impacts.

Appellant Jerry Cassesi said he thought the “EIR was dismissive of the impacts of traffic” on a bridge and road in the Jackson Valley, especially with the potential for the Buena Vista Me-Wok tribe’s proposed Flying Cloud Casino, proposed to be located across Coalmine Road from the power plant.

Supervisors agreed, and made note of road and bridge impacts in conditions of approval, with those to be addressed in future work between the county and the applicant.

Tim Taylor, attorney for the applicant agreed with that, as long as they built in language for future reimbursement for the project.

Supervisor Brian Oneto recused himself at the start of the meeting to avoid a conflict as his family owns property adjacent to the plant.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 with one abstention Tuesday afternoon to deny three appeals on the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant, and in the same vote approved the electric generating plant’s permit to operate.

Supervisors held an appeal hearing and discussed three appeals, hearing from the applicant, citizens who appealed the project, and from consultants who wrote the Subsequent Environmental Impact Report for the plant, which will burn woody biomass waste, in a nearly 30-year-old facility on Coal Mine Road.

The Former Co-Gen plant could be a $25 million project, and bring $250,000 in tax revenue to the county.

More than 50 people attended the morning hearing, and more than 30 remained at the end, including Buena Vista Biomass applicant, Michael J. Muston, president and CEO of Otoka Local Renewable Energy of Bloomington, Minnesota.

Appellant Kevin Bundy, chief attorney for the “Center for Biological Diversity” spoke to the board, and county staff and consultants, with his concerns. County consultant on environmental law, special counsel Al Herson addressed the EIR, and said one issue at question was whether a new EIR was merited.

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse asked if the county EIR consultants, Ascent Environmental, wrote an “affirmatively misleading EIR,” as Bundy alleged. Herson said, that would mean that Ascent would have tried to “mislead the public about impacts,” and Herson said he did not believe that was true.

Herson said he worked with Ascent since the beginning of the process, and believed a “good faith effort” was made for “full disclosure” of the plant’s impacts.

He said it may have been a “failure to communicate”, as commenters wanted a new EIR. Herson said the Subsequent EIR was done because it was connected to an existing permit for the plant. He said “all of the impacts of this project are treated as new”, and the EIR used a non-operating plant as the base, to measure impacts.

Appellant Jerry Cassesi said he thought the “EIR was dismissive of the impacts of traffic” on a bridge and road in the Jackson Valley, especially with the potential for the Buena Vista Me-Wok tribe’s proposed Flying Cloud Casino, proposed to be located across Coalmine Road from the power plant.

Supervisors agreed, and made note of road and bridge impacts in conditions of approval, with those to be addressed in future work between the county and the applicant.

Tim Taylor, attorney for the applicant agreed with that, as long as they built in language for future reimbursement for the project.

Supervisor Brian Oneto recused himself at the start of the meeting to avoid a conflict as his family owns property adjacent to the plant.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Republican Assemblyman Ted Gaines succeeded to the State Senate for District 1 including Amador County and 11 other counties last night, with a special election victory over Democrat Ken Cooley. Unofficial results showed Gaines won by 34,000 votes, and took 63 percent of the vote.

Amador County Registrar of Voters Sheldon Johnson announced unofficial county results, with 100 percent of the precincts having been counted and tallied as of 9:23 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 4) showing Gaines leading the vote in Amador County at 62 percent to 37 percent.

Gaines had 4,108 votes in Amador County, while Cooley had 2,448.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s website showed “semi-official results” from District 1 throughout the night Tuesday. Bowen’s site reported at 9:53 p.m. that with 63 percent of precincts reporting across District 1, Gaines led with 63 percent of the vote to Cooley’s 36 percent. That tally included 322 of a total 514 precincts partially reporting district-wide. It showed Gaines had 72,833 votes and Cooley had 42,365.

By 10:06 p.m., with 70 percent of precincts reporting, Gaines had 74,127 votes, and still held 63 percent of the vote, to Cooley’s 43,005 votes, a 31,000-vote margin.

By 10:22 p.m., Gaines kept the same 63 percent majority, with 83 percent of precincts reported, and 78,598 votes to 46,183 for Cooley, a 32,400-vote lead.

Gaines, the sitting District 4 State Assemblyman, held a presumed party line edge of about 11 points in District 1, whose registered Republican voters outnumbered Democrats by that percentage.

Another special election on Tuesday, limited to only Amador County, was a recall election of Lylis McCutcheon, a board member of the River Pines Public Utility District. After 100 percent of the precincts were reported Tuesday, the unofficial tally showed that 75 percent of the votes cast were in favor of McCutcheon’s recall, or 98 votes, versus the 32 votes against.

The other question in River Pines, her replacement, voters give the lone replacement candidate, Perry Hopkins a vote edge of 81-39 in favor, or 67 percent of the vote.

Registrar of Voters Sheldon Johnson said River Pines had 222 registered voters eligible to vote in the recall, and all of them had been sent vote-by-mail ballots. The initial tally at the closes of the polls at 8:02 p.m. showed the same number of ballots cast as when the Amador County election office tallied the 100 percent of precincts at 9:23 p.m.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.