NEW!
CCSD and Army Corps of Engineers Plan to Drill Test Wells For Desalination Plant On Shamel Park Beach
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LandWatch News and Events
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| Court requires CCSD to produce administrative records on Water Master Plan |
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| Moonstone Beach North of Santa Rosa Creek |
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LANDWATCH IS TAKING A STAND AGAINST DESALINATION
In
October 2008 LandWatch filed a lawsuit against the CCSD for violation
of the California Environmental Quality Act. The heart of this suit
shows that the CCSD illegally selected desalination as its preferred
water source based on environmental “findings” (legally binding
technical conclusions) that were not backed up by any information or
analysis. Under state laws including the California Environmental
Quality Act, or CEQA, this kind of uninformed decision making by public
agency officials is not legal.
For example, without any
information about plant location, plant design or the toxic left-over
seawater that the plant will pump back into the ocean, the District
Board approved the formal legal “finding” that operation of a desal
plant would cause no harm to ocean plants, animals, and habitats. The
Board voted to make this finding without knowing where the waste water
would be dumped, what chemicals would be in it, how much would be
pumped out over what period of time, and what plants, animals and
habitats existed in the area. The law prohibits this kind of random,
uninformed decision-making.
But, without a legal challenge the
District could get away with it. Unchallenged, the false “findings”
will be final and the District and the Army Corps may try to legally
rely on them and sidestep genuine environmental review of the effects
of operation of the plant once it is designed and sited. That is why
LandWatch stepped up to the plate and sued the District for these
blatant violations of law.
LandWatch needs your help in the
legal battle to stop the District from building a desal plant that
could harm the life and sustainability of what is still clean living
ocean within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Please donate
today to this effort.
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| Relative Energy costs of Alternate Water Source Options |
| LandWatch v. CCSD Lawsuit Documents |
APPEAL OF SAN SIMEON COVE DEVELOPMENT
On
another front, Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc., is taking its
first steps into development of the North Coast rural area and it is
starting with the “crown jewel” – San Simeon Cove. Based on a
non-functional 30 year old land use plan that allows “a resort lodge of
approximately 250 rooms, restaurant, cocktail lounge,
convention/meeting facilities, tourist cottages, golf course, swimming
pool, and tennis courts” on land surrounding the Cove, the County
Subdivision Review Board approved the first lot line adjustment that
accommodates undisclosed development plans.
While the private
conservation easement monitored by the California Rangeland Trust
defines agreed-upon land uses between private parties, this is not a
government land use plan and can be changed by the parties. The CCSD
proved that conservation easements are not “in perpetuity” when it
violated a conservation easement for development of a water storage
tank.
LandWatch appealed the Subdivision Review Board’s decision
to the Board of Supervisors on 14 separate violations including the
lack of a functioning land use plan and the illegal creation of
commercial retail zoned land without a general plan amendment.
LandWatch
wants the County to rewrite the completely out-of-date North Coast
Rural Area Plan before it allows any development or land use changes on
the Hearst property. We need your help to engage in the long term
protection of San Simeon Cove and the North Coast Rural Area.
The
time is now. The threats of an unlimited source of high cost water and
unplanned urban development of San Simeon Cove and the North Coast
Rural Area are upon us. Please join LandWatch San Luis Obispo County
in protecting the land and natural resources of this precious place.
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| Hearst Ranch lot line adjustment appeal to the California Coastal Commission Documents |
| San Simeon Cove Photographs |
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