Amador County – A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency denial of an appeal on the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians’ permit to discharge tertiary treated wastewater on its 67-acre casino project site said the tribe adequately studied historical properties on its land on Coal Mine Road.

A Sept. 6 ruling denied an appeal of a federal discharge permit, saying historic properties were adequately studied for impacts, and were minimized by changing the project.

The ruling by the EPA Appeals Review Board, said the State Historic Preservation Officer issued a letter concurring that the “Region appropriately defined the area of potential effects and that the Region’s efforts to identify historic properties represent a reasonable good faith effort.”

The ruling said the “Region determined that the area between Buena Vista Peaks and Upusuni Village where the tribe proposes to construct the casino and wastewater treatment facility does not have any intact or potentially eligible cultural resources.” It “confirmed that this central portion of the area of potential effects is not included within the recorded site areas for either Buena Vista Peaks or Upusuni Village.”

The ruling noted that the Buena Vista Me-Wuk band consulted with Amador County, Ione Band of Miwok Indians, and Jackson Rancheria Band of Miwuk Indians on cultural resources, for a “Historic Properties Treatment Plan.”

The ruling said: “Prior to development of a memorandum of agreement and Historic Properties Treatment Plan, the Buena Vista tribe made several changes to the project design to attempt to address adverse effects.” Changes included “shifting the location of the proposed casino southward to avoid direct impacts to the Upusuni Village; downsizing the proposed casino’s capacity from 71,525 square feet to 25,332 square feet;” and moving a parking structure out of the Village and reducing it to six parking levels from nine. The Casino’s height was also reduced by 21 feet. The ruling noted that the project would not affect access to tribal cultural sites.

The ruling said the Historic Properties Treatment Plan was included in the Ione Band’s appeal, but was not a public document due to its containing sensitive information about historic sites. The ruling said the Buena Vista Band did not object to including the plan in the appeal, but objected to disclosure of sensitive information, pursuant to law. The EPA Appeal Board thus said it would “not consider the substance of the Historic Properties Treatment Plan in its decision.”

The ruling said the California Advisory Council on Historic Preservation originally declined to participate in the site review, and declined again after a January 2010 request by the Ione Band to participate in consultation. The Council was noted in the ruling saying that draft mitigation “will address effects on known and potentially known sites of religious and cultural significance to the tribes.”

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