Save Shollenberger Park

80% of Respondents are Against Locating the Dutra Factory at Haystack Landing Is anybody listening? Poll: Supes made wrong decision on asphalt plant by Pulse.Of.Petaluma An overwhelming number of people who responded to the Argus-Courier's online poll October 21, 2010 feel that that the Board of Supervisors made the wrong decision on October 12 when it voted to approve a proposed asphalt plant south of town. More than 80 percent said it was a wrong decision and that the public did not have adequate time to review the 1,100 pages of documents describing the revised, reduced asphalt plant. Here are some of the comments from those who responded to the poll. Read more comments at the pulse of Petaluma blog at Petaluma 360 . "I don't feel like the majority of the supervisors are listening to the citizens of Petaluma. To allow an asphalt plant in this beautiful and vulnerable area does not make sense. This is not something that can be reconstructed if it gets destroyed. This is...

Next Step: We’ll stop them in The Courts Donate for the Legal Defense ! The Community vs. Dutra Materials and The County of Sonoma 2011 Dear Friends of Shollenberger Park, The Board of Supervisors’ straw vote on October 12, 2010 is not the end of the line for our campaign. We WILL stop Dutra from locating next to our park. If not with a vote from the Supervisors then in the courts with a lawsuit proving the inadequacy of the EIR and the hearing process, exposing the lack of compliance with CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). It’s important to note our successes since this battle for our right to fresh air and well-being began: 1. We have exposed Dutra and their hired consulting engineer Al Cornwall, CSW Stueber Stroeh, as giving false map information on the location of the navigable channel and PG&E transmission pipes to the County and the US Coast Guard. 2. We have delayed final approval hearing of the project originally on the agenda from December 2008 to December 2010...

I am very disappointed with the 3 votes to support Dutra. The outcome seemed wired from the beginning of the meeting. The public had virtually no chance of providing new and corrected information and comments to the Supervisors, given both the extremely short timeline to review over 1100 pages of documents released just last week, and given the 3 minute limits of talking to the Supervisors. We very much appreciate Supervisors Brown and Zane's understanding of core issues about the asphalt plant's damaging health and air quality impacts, among other issues. I am very proud of our community, both our old and new friends and allies, who continue to address these problems with vigor, creativity, intelligence, caring and good will. We will be meeting to determine our next steps shortly. We believe strongly that our community will win, and prevent Dutra from building any asphalt plant at the entrance to our community and the Gateway to Sonoma County. It remains the wrong plant,...

Unfortunately, our Sonoma County Supervisors conducted a straw vote this afternoon 3-2 in favor of the Dutra Asphalt Factory. Supervisors Shirlee Zane and Valerie Brown voted against the factory citing various concerns including Dutra's record of violations and the substantial health concerns. Supervisors Mike Kerns , Paul Kelley & Efren Carrillo voted in favor of Dutra. Stay tuned for our next steps on preventing this factory from being built in our community.

We need you tomorrow, Tuesday October 12th! If at all possible, please plan to attend this final hearing. Your Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will decide the fate of the Dutra Asphalt Factory at Haystack Landing in Petaluma, right across the river from Shollenberger Park. This could be our last opportunity to speak our minds to the Supervisors and show what kind of county we want. Please join us!! TUESDAY OCTOBER 12TH Supervisors Chambers 575 Administration Drive, Room 100A, Santa Rosa, CA The agenda item is scheduled for just after 2pm but arrive early (1pm) to ensure you get access to the chambers. Bring friends and family...don't forget snacks, it could last hours. Arrive anytime between 1pm and 4pm as it will still be going on. We will be carpooling at Noon from our Headquarters in Petaluma, located at 322 Western Avenue, next to the Tea Room Cafe. Thank you for your support and we'll see you tomorrow!

Following are excerpts from the September 30, 2010 Community Health Forum "Potential Health Impacts of the Proposed Dutra Asphalt Plant" sponsored by the Petaluma Health Care District Friends of Shollenberger Park and Moms For Clean Air invited 2 speakers to this event. Dr. James Clark is a toxicologist with 20 years of experience researching the effects of environmental contaminants on human health. Dr. Brock-Utne is a pediatrician and is the Community and Primary Care Project Director of the Region 9 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at UCSF. The complete health care forum will be broadcast on PCA soon. These are the first clips of this event to become available. They were posted to YouTube just last night! Dr. Clark's presentation: Dr. Brock-Utne presentation:

Dutra would have us believe that they can make an asphalt factory without any releases of toxins or noxious fumes and dusts. Ms. Dutra’s p.r. pitch is ‘everything is wonderful’. Tragically, this is not the case. Having visited Ms. Dutra’s earlier version of what she called their ‘state of the art, ideal Astec plant’ in Ontario, I know first hand of the leaks, the smells, the noise and the dusts coming from not only the plant itself, but also from the trucks hauling in rock and leaving with un-tarped asphalt loads. During peak production, when they are running 24/7 to fill government contracts, that means heavy trucks every 3-5 minutes, all day and night. And if you want to get to Hwy 101 in the morning or afternoon rush hours, they predict stop and go traffic waiting for trucks at the Landing Way/Petaluma Boulevard So. intersection. The Dutra Companies have a terrible legal and environmental record, stretching from the Port of Miami (FL) to the Gulf of the Farralones National Marine Sa...

We have just received incomplete documentation from the Permit and Resource Management Department on Dutra's latest version (Revision II) of the proposal, less than 6 days before the October 12th, 2010 hearing for public comment. Please email the Supervisors and demand a postponement (sample letter below): 1st District Supervisor Valerie Brown 2nd District Supervisor Mike Kerns 3rd District Supervisor Shirlee Zane 4th District Supervisor Paul Kelley 5th District Supervisor Efren Carrillo Sample letter: Oct. 6, 2010 Dear Chairman Valerie Brown Sup. Zane, Sup. Kerns, Sup. Carrillo, Sup. Kelley: Environmental reports on the Dutra Proposal (Revision II) are arriving piecemeal, incomplete and too late for the public to adequately review and respond to at the Tuesday, October 12th Hearing. Please consider re-scheduling the Dutra Hearing to allow the public reasonable time to receive and review the documents and all back-up data. There is no time for the public and decision makers to ma...

Click for news coverage on KTVU Last night we had a pivotal meeting, "The Health Forum on the Potential Impacts of the Proposed Dutra Asphalt Plant," sponsored by the Petaluma Health Care District responsible for the health and well-being of Southern Sonoma County. There were about 175 people there. The evidence presented by Dr. James Clark and Dr. Alice Brock-Utne was sobering and blew away any health comfort level that the Dutra presenters tried to establish regarding diesel exhaust and asphalt by-products. Dr. Alice Brock-Utne basically presented how vulnerable children and developing fetuses are, how lungs continue to develop after birth and negative changes possible in actual lung structure and function through the teen years. The diesel exhaust and associated 2.5 particulate matter which this project would bring to this currently healthy air space, would particularly affect our children who exercise there, the schools and their students which are located within a two m...