Last week was a big week in the Caltrans Willits Bypass campaign, starting with a day in court. As covered in our last update, two groups had filed suit against the County of Mendocino over permits issued to allow excavation by Caltrans contractors of nearly a million cubic yards of fill being dumped on wetlands in Willits. The fill is being dumped on the wick drains in the wetlands at the north end of Willits to make way for the boondoggle highway, and the groups charged violations of the Calif. Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) because of a lack of review. A hearing for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was scheduled for Wednesday 8-28, but when we showed up in court, we learned the County had revoked the permit, saying it had been issued “in error”. The truth is, they were caught, not in an error, but in an act of clear deceit, allowing contractors to do work without proper permits. But the fact that they essentially “TRO’ed” themselves meant the fill trucks were silenced.
Violations Rain on Caltrans as It Lumbers Forward on Destructive Path
The Notice of Non-Compliance, made public the week before is still a hot topic as Caltrans watchers wait to see what action the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) will take. The Army Corps issued the notice calling it a “serious violation” that could warrant a stop work order. City Councilwoman Madge Strong and others just made a trip to meet with ACE officials in San Francisco. ACE is mandated to assure no net loss of wetlands based on stringent conditions which are not being met by Caltrans. Further, there has been no analysis of impact of the 55,000 wick drains now in the north wetlands.
A packed City Council meeting last week heard at least 2 hours of public testimony in support of a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown (brought by Councilwoman Madge Strong) calling for a down-sizing of the project before irreparable harm takes place.
After the trucks hauling fill were shut down for a week because of the County permit revocation, they just started rolling again, hauling fill from another site to dump on the wetlands. As a result, we are likely to see more direct action soon. Stay tuned!
There is an action camp and fairly constant activity if people are able to go and help defend the wetlands. To otherwise support and for more info see http://www.savelittlelakevalley.org