Mike Boeck Retained As Consultant
We
have reached an agreement with Mike Boeck to consult the Warrior's Society the
Warrior's Society regarding policy. Mike is a well known activist and Secretary
of the Inter-Canyon League and also a former member of the Sierra
Club involved in various task forces.
Mike will be advising the Warrior's Society on issues such as:
The
road through the Santa Ana Mountains
The
Irvine Ranch land donation and recreation concept
The
Irvine Ranch development of the land not included in the donation in the
foothills and East Orange
The
Mission Viejo Ranch development
Issues
related to the Sierra Club
The Forest Plan for the Cleveland National Forest
The Road Through The Santa Ana Mountains Update
Mike Boeck
I attended a meeting this morning of the Water Advisory
Committee of Orange County (WACO) to hear a progress report on the Cleveland
Tunnel Transportation/Utilities Corridor by Bill Vardoulis, President of BV
Engineering (BVE). Here's what I learned:
The City of Irvine has apparently offered to fund 50% of
the environmental study for this tunnel under the Cleveland National Forest,
which could cost millions.
Financing for this project could come from three
interested parties: Bechtel, an Australian firm and the English company that
helped fund the Chunnel.
BVE has done substantial work on this concept, and
today's presentation was the 23rd time Bill has pitched the project at a
meeting this year.
Both the Orange County Transportation Authority and the
Irvine Company oppose the project. Supervisor Todd Spitzer apparently supports
it, according to Mr. Vardoulis.
BVE is using the same route alignment and the same
geotechnical study previously offered for the Metropolitan Water District's
Central Pool Augmentation (CPA) and Water Quality Project that was proposed in
the early and mid-90s.
There is a probability that the proposed three vehicle
and truck tunnels will be piggybacked with other uses, such as water and oil
pipelines under the roadways and even possibly 500,000-volt power transmission
lines.
The proposed route, you will notice from the website, is
from the Cajalco Junction under parts of Silverado and Ladd Canyons. Supposedly
the tunnel would exit southwest of the Loma Ridge, connect to the 133 and 241
toll roads and travel 300 feet or so under our canyon areas. Bill mentioned that
the westernmost air vent could be located on the old dump site northwest of
Irvine Lake, but that would obviously be several miles north of the route shown
on the website.
Financial: The cost for the three tunnels would be about
$100 million per mile for each tunnel, or $300 million for 3 tunnels x 10 miles
= $3 billion. At $2 to $3 per vehicle (more for trucks), the projected revenues
would be approximately $300 million per year.
Construction time: Three years for a 10- to 12-mile
tunnel complex if the latest tunneling technology were to be used and no
unforeseen problems were to arise. Dirt and debris would possibly be moved by
rail to the Port of Long Beach to provide fill for future port additions.
When I asked if the tunnel could possibly be built under the existing 91 Freeway
right-of-way, thus avoiding the Cleveland National Forest, further property and
right-of-way condemnations/purchases and opposition from numerous public groups,
Bill Vardoulis claimed that the "approaches" to the tunnels at each end
would not be sufficient to carry the tunnel load, which is exactly my viewpoint
regarding the approaches that would be used no matter where the tunnel is
placed. There are currently more highway lanes connecting to the 91 Corridor on
each end than the Cajalco Corridor or anywhere south of the 91 by far. And when
Mike Hazzard asked whether sufficient rail service was available for all the
debris to be carried by train to Long Beach, Bill paused and then replied, "I
have been told so." I disagree about this.
The tunnel website has been so well hidden that no
Internet search for it has been successful to date. I can't find a link to it
from the BVE website, which has also been a difficult site to access recently.
Here is the tunnel website address that I received from Bill Vardoulis himself
for those who can't find it (like most of us):
Click on Take A Ride On THE ROCK to go to the site. This link does not work with Netscape Navigator. More info coming soon.
The Fight Against The Rancho Portero Leadership Academy (RPLA) Expansion
The following appeal was sent by Rich Gomez and the Saddleback Canyons Conservancy. They are attempting to stop the expansion of the Boys Ranch in Trabuco Canyon east of O'Neill Park on the slopes of the Santa Ana Mountains. The Warrior's Society does not believe the County will stop the expansion at 90 beds, but will increase the capacity of the facility to way beyond this amount. This will have a dramatic impact on the canyon. Rich and the Saddleback Canyons Conservancy are asking for donations to file a lawsuit to stop this ill-planned project. I'll let Rich explain:
The
County will complete this project unless we are successful at preventing this
environmental destruction. Trabuco Canyon is a treasure for everyone to
enjoy; it must saved in the public interest.
We've raised $5,475 in one week over Christmas thanks to all of you. This
is a huge accomplishment, and we've gotten a wonderful response from most of the
local neighbors. Now we need to focus on our more distant neighbors: those
in Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Caza, Dove Canyon and all the mountain
bikers, hikers and equestrians who use and will be negatively impacted by
the construction project.
Your dollars are already at work! We are filing a CEQA
(California Environmental Quality Act) lawsuit against the County, and the legal
documents are already being prepared! While your donations are not currently tax deductible, because of the
public-interest nature of this case, if and when we win, attorneys' fees and
your contributions will be recoverable! What that means is that the money
you donate to stop this destruction will be returned to you. Certainly there are
no guarantees we will win, but with everyone's support and participation we
can!!
We
need to have a town meeting, and at this meeting we'll discuss more directly our
plans and strategies. At this meeting we also want to be able to answer
everyone's questions. One thing that's key here as we proceed: This
is a community effort and we need everyone's support and ideas. Everyone
is welcome, everyone is encouraged to attend and
participate! There's something for everyone to do. Here's what we
want to accomplish at the meeting:
a) Elect
a Steering Committee
b) Explain our strategy and our needs - answer questions.
c) Listen to what everyone has to say; we must agree on our strategy
d) "Formalize" membership in the Saddleback Canyons Conservancy
e) Introduce our legal team
f) Outline the process of a CEQA lawsuit
g) Discuss how we can raise additional money - fund raisers
h) Get volunteers to request sponsorship from area merchants and
businesses. Sponsors will get free advertising on our website at www.saddlebackcanyons.org
; we will create the ad for them and post it as part of the sponsorship program.
So that's a lot of stuff to digest; please think about this and think
about your commitment to stopping this project. We don't expect the
neighborhood to finance a legal battle; we need to represent the TRUTH about
this project and enlist the support of all who use Trabuco Canyon and the
Cleveland National Forest. We also need to represent the TRUTH to all of
our government representatives and the media. (See our website for tips on
what you can do and who you can contact.)
The public will be impacted and once this beautiful canyon is
destroyed, there's no replacing it. All the mitigation in the world cannot
replace the creek, the serenity, the trees, the wildlife, or the wide open
spaces.
And we all know the County won't stop here. It's not
going to be just 90-beds; this is going to be a 100-acre jail facility with a
lot more than 90-beds. And once the road is in, you can expect development
to continue right up to the National Forest - there's nothing to stop this
development. Once the door is open, it's too late...the Board of
Supervisors set the stage by approving the first exemption to the Foothill/Trabuco
Specific Plan (FTSP). There will be more...
Let's stop this special-interest project, demand some
alternatives and preserve an environmental treasure.
For now, Happy New
Year... please make a personal commitment to make a difference...
Rich Gomez Saddle Back Canyons Conservancy
www.saddlebackcanyons.org
949-855-8822 x356 work
949-855-3045 fax
714-314-6524 pager
714-504-7001 cell
Southern California Foresters Meeting
By Robin "El Moro Warrior" Lemonds
The Southern California Foresters meeting on October 18-19th went well and my presentation was well accepted. It was a small group and their interests were varied, but they did ask a lot of questions, none that I didn't feel comfortable answering.
I talked about the Warrior's Society and the work we do and how we have recently been more involved with political issues. I talked about the Sierra Club and the wilderness designation issue only because they specifically asked about it. I told them that we were currently working on developing a designation that would be more appropriate than "wilderness."
On Friday I attended a presentation by
Cathy Bechtel,
the Director of Planning and Programming for the Riverside County Transportation
Commission.
I knew that she would bring up the plan to put the road though the Santa
Ana Mountains, and my intent was just to sit quietly and listen to what she had
to say.
That was fine until she made the remark that "people live in Riverside
because the want to enjoy more open space but because the jobs are in Orange
County we need to provide a more efficient way for them to get back and
forth."
I couldn't let that go by so I asked her if what she was saying was that the people of Riverside don't mind fragmenting our open space so they can get home to their open space after work? She didn't give me an answer on that but went on to talk about the possibility of building a tunnel under the mountains to avoid building a road over the mountains.
I asked her if it was true that a tunnel of that size would have to be vented though the top of the mountain and that those vents would have to be accessible by some type of road. She said this was true and that trucks and equipment would have to be able to get up there. I asked her if anyone was looking into the possibility of reneging on the deal that Caltrans made with the 91 Expressway, accepting any forthcoming lawsuits and double-decking the 91. She was not aware if this was being looked into. She did say that they are looking into the possibility of straitening and widening the 74 as an alternative to building another road.
(Editor's note: Robin was there to sit on a panel and represent the Warrior's Society and our view of recreational use of the forest.)
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