The city also states that
fire and emergency services will also be taxed not only in the city but through
mutual aid to surrounding communities such as the Jackson Valley area. Public
safety also includes environmental conditions such as the water situation in
Ione which is tenuous at best. The
City addresses another draw down on local water sources and indicates that
under federal Law the tribe must performing testing that shows identifiable
impacts associated with groundwater extraction. Amador County Officials
agree with the overview presented by the city of Ione and goes as far as
stating that the draft tribal Environmental Impact report is deficient in many
important respects. Although, the County acknowledges that the new TEIR is
substantially longer the previous attempt by the tribe, the county states it is not more substantive in
its content and still contains an incomplete analysis of many of the critical
areas of impacts and mitigations.
The county states that although the tribe dedicates a great
deal of the new draft documents and its contents to discussing water and
waste water issues, there is still
inadequate details and no real resolutions presented by the tribe to critical
areas like how they will supply the casino with water and how they will dispose
of the casinos waste water. Again the lack of detail is cited by the
county as an inadequacy of the new Draft TEIR. Many of the areas discussed
include comments by the tribe that the impacts are significant and will require
mitigations. However, the
county notes there is no detailed statement made about what these mitigations
measures will be to address what the tribe describes as significant impacts.
The county also emphasizes that the land proposed for the Flying Cloud Casino
is still in a “fee title” and owned by the tribe. This means that any endeavors
other than gaming, once gaming is approved by the federal government under the
federal Indian Gaming Rules of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, will be
subject to state and local rules. If any activity besides gaming, for example a
hotel, will be subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. This could
have a big impact on any projects to be developed in conjunction with the
casino.