Save Bay Hill

The fate of a historic Sonoma Coast ranch is currently being decided:

EITHER Bodega Bay's Calvi Ranch will be bought by the Dutra Group to be developed into a large scale open-pit mining operation for the extraction of aggregate.

OR The pristine coastal prairie will be protected in recognition of its great value to the State of California as open space and agricultural land, and its strategic placement within a coastal conservation zone extending from the Estero Americano to the Russian River.

*Update 9/2006: The Dutra Group has extended the lease of the Calvi Ranch, however the terms of the renegotiation have been kept private and are unknown at this time to the public.

The Calvi Ranch is 550 acres of native coastal prairie at 1001 Bay Hill Road in Bodega Bay. The quarry site is visible from COAST HWY ONE, Bay Hill rd., the Bodega Harbor Golf Links, Coleman Valley Rd., Estero Ln., Taylor Ln., and Fitzpatric Ln. The proposed quarry expansion is two miles from the coast; runoff containing silt from the operation would drain through Quinlan and Cheney Gulch watersheds into Bodega Harbor and the Cordell Banks National Marine Sanctuary. The California Department of Fish and Game has recently registered the land as federally protected steelhead trout spawning habitat. The property is in the Coastal Zone and designated for Land Extensive Agriculture. Mining is not allowed in this zone.

The Dutra Group aggregate mining corporation of San Rafael Dutragroup.com is planning to begin a large scale rock quarry operation. If a purchase is made, the mine could extract as much as 13,000,000 tons of blue shall and sandstone. Dutra Group has done multiple multi- million dollar development projects throughout the West Coast including having dredged in Bodega Bay by contract with the Army Corps of Engineers. On August 17, 2006, Dutra Group was charged with illegal dumping in San Francisco Bay (See Article). At the Dutra quarry in San Rafael there is an ongoing lawsuit on Public Nuisance grounds filed by the County of Marin and local citizens due to disregard of community.

The Friends of the Bodega Bay Watershed hereby call into action a county assessment on the viability of a quarry at this location. We recognize the need for aggregate to support our county’s infrastructure as articulated in the 2004/2005 Report on Sonoma County's Aggregate Use; however, we make this call to attention to determine if this is an appropriate site for extraction.

As stated above, the property is in the Coastal Zone and designated for Land Extensive Agriculture. Mining is not allowed in this zone. The project would require a rezoning and an amendment of the County's Local Coastal Program.

As well, the property is zoned as Scenic Landscape Unit under section 2.2 of the Open Space Element of the Sonoma County General Plan, which is in place to protect this particular region against development and "retain the largely open, scenic character of important scenic landscape." The open space is legally considered a resource of integral value for the "quality of life of County residents and the agricultural and tourism economies." Objective OS-2b states "Avoid commercial or industrial uses." Sonoma-county.org

The property is simultaneously zoned as a mineral bearing area of Regional Significance under section 8.0 of the Resource Conservation Element of the Sonoma County General Plan. This is a state mandated designation of Mineral Resource Deposit for the purpose of "obtaining future supplies of aggregate material." However, "the fact that the property may be designated by the state as an area of regional significance for mineral resources does not in any way pre-empt County land use and environmental regulations (PRMD)."

The Sonoma County Open Space District (CORRECTION: The Land Trust was never approached) was prepared to purchase the property, but failed to do so. This warrants attention to be called on the merit of this land as a greenbelt and therefore in inappropriate site for mining. There are alternative ways to fulfill the county's aggregate demand.

The county should be aware of the consequences of permitting this corporation to mine in this location.

Property values: Adverse effects due to congestion and industrialization of scenic area; massive blemish on scenic landscape
Road construction: Road expansion is mandated as traffic mitigation; Highway One Bodega Bay bypass to replace Bay Hill rd.
Taxation: Tax dollars to pay for county work
Traffic: Drastic increase in road congestion (*see below for model)
Tourism: Local business will drop by degradation of scenic landscape; traffic traveling on HWY ONE will circumvent Bodega Bay on Bay Hill bypass

Native coastal habitat destruction
Loss of endangered and protected species habitat: CA State Fish and Game registered Steelhead
Air pollution: Adverse health effects due to high quantity of emissions and dust pollution
Noise pollution: Dynamite blasting, heavy equipment operation, truck traffic
(At Dutra's San Rafael Quarry there were operations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
Water pollution: Run- off high in turbidity will drain directly through Cheney Gulch into Bodega Harbor
Erosion will cause siltation in watershed and Bay; even a minimal build up of silt can be fatal to the steelhead population.
Groundwater Contamination, degradation
Earthquake: Quarry operation can cause shifts in tectonic plates due to large scale dynamite (1.5 earthquake was recorded from Dutra's San Rafael quarry)

*To model conceivable traffic increase:* The largest five axle tandem trailers available carry at capacity 25 tons per truck.
This quarry will supply at least 5,000,000 tons of aggregate.
Using these numbers, there would be 200,000 large trucks on Highway One.
A rate of 1 truck per hour equivocates to 8,736 per year for 23 years:

(*This is a conservative estimate not taking into consideration mitigation or future use of land*)

Bodega Bay strives to preserve the extraordinary ecosystem surrounding the coastal community. The citizens of the community hereby unite against the extraction of aggregate from this site in order to protect critical native habitat, coastal open space, and agricultural land that has survived thus far.

In recognition that the California Coastal Commission has established regulations on this area which protect against such activities as quarrying, the citizens of the Coast hereby support the enforcement of these standards.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

#1: NETWORK:
Collaboration is the key; Contact Us.
This assertion requires large- scale unification of organizations.

#2: STAY INFORMED:
visit this site for updates on progress and meetings

#3: WRITE LETTERS to the Board of Supervisors and the Coastal Commission:
Mike Reilly
County of Sonoma
575 Administration Drive, Rm. 100
Santa Rosa, CA 95403-2887
*click here for Town Hall Coalition's extensive contact directory of our elected officials and governing agencies.

#4: MAKE DONATIONS:
Friends of the Bodega Bay Watershed
PO Box 542
Bodega Bay, CA 94923

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMITMENT TO THE LAND.
Friends of the Bodega Bay Watershed