Ojai citizens still try to stop the trucks

As in a chess game pitting environmentalists against industrialists on opposite ends of the playing board, members of a grass-roots activist group are awaiting the next move by Ventura County officials regarding the future of truck traffic generated from a mining project. Ojai residents say the trucks are disrupting the serenity of their quiet neighborhood.

In their request for public documents from the county level, members of the Stop the Trucks Coalition say the information contained in those records could further illustrate that the frequency of trucks hauling rock and gravel from the Ozena mines just north of Ojai is environmentally unsound. However, according to two of its founding members, those requests are nearing their expiry date, further delaying a process that has endured for years.

“We are sure there are an extraordinary number of violations,” said Stop the Trucks member Howard Smith of Ojai.

In particular, Smith’s group has sought the cessation of truck travel along the Route 33 stretch through the Ojai Valley. Their claim: The 75-year-old thoroughfare, with its narrow twists and turns, is unfit as a mass industrial traffic corridor, compounded by the long-term noise and air pollution it could generate for years to come.

Both Smith and the coalition’s chair, Michael Shapiro of Ojai, want to see if looking at official weigh tickets will, for one, show that trucks from the Ozena mines are not traveling in compliance with designated times allotted for them in the project’s permit, and two, that the county is not imposing penalties for the violations.

This follows an accusation earlier this year by coalition members that weigh tickets from July and August of 2007 were undercounted, inaccurate and “rubber stamped” by the powers-that-be. In response to the claims, the Reporter published a letter on June 26 from Pat Richards, a supervisor for commercial and industrial permits for Ventura County’s planning division, which stated that only a negligible number of violations — 4.47 percent of 649 truck trips — within that month’s period were in violation. The planning department at that time made clear that it would also not retroactively enforce previous violations of the sort.

Under the guidelines, trucks are allowed to travel on Highway 33 from 6 to 7 a.m., and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m..

“We know trucks routinely go up to Ozena as early as 3 a.m., 4 a.m.,” said Smith.

It’s not just time constraints the coalition is worried about. According to Smith, through eyewitness accounts, the same gravel trucks have allegedly been traveling through Ojai residential streets as well.

An e-mail from the coalition quotes an Ojai resident who spotted trucks mingling with pre-9 a.m. rush hour traffic last week.

“I spotted another truck near my home,” Ray Smith was quoted as saying. “Apparently, they are coming from Santa Paula, but instead of going through downtown via Ojai Avenue, they cut north to Grand Avenue. They head east, turn onto West

Summer Street, then south on Canada to pick up Ojai Avenue again.”

Smith goes on to mention that he has seen this scenario happen three times. However, said Shapiro, there is no absolute way to tell if they are trucks coming to and from Ozena unless monitoring occurs at the gravel mine itself.

Another series of documents the coalition looks to acquire through county channels, according to Smith, is all records of proposal requests from contractors looking to complete an environmental impact report for the Ozena deal.

Environmental impact reports, or EIRs, are published studies which examine any impacts an industrial or commercial project may pose to the local environment and, if negative, how they may be mitigated.

The coalition’s gripe in this area, according to Shapiro and Smith, is that county administration has been slow and unresponsive to their requests, which propelled Stop the Trucks to seek legal intervention from a Santa Monica-based environmental law firm.

“We finally had to resort to the law to get what we request,” Shapiro noted. “It’s a sad story that a citizen group such as ourselves requesting public information has to jump through hoops.”

Arthur Pugsley, of the firm Chatten-Brown and Carstens, said he is “eagerly anticipating” the information.

“The last public records act request, it did take quite a while for them to respond to it,” he said. Pugsley’s most recent request, according to a letter from his firm, was dated Aug. 21.

But according to Richards of county planning, the process of hiring an outside contractor has barely begun. Once that happens, he said, a public hearing in Ojai will be necessary to discuss the scope of work required for conducting an EIR report, which will then need approval from several other agencies: Caltrans, the state’s fish and game board, and so on. That could take time, but will ensure that all bases are covered.

“Before we launch in earnest and start putting pen to paper, are there areas we missed or appear to be getting glossed over?” Richards asked. “If that’s the case, we want to get that early in the process.”

Richards also refuted concerns from Stop the Trucks that the county may look to employ the Ozena Ranch’s own environmental engineer to carry out the EIR.

“The applicant is held at arm’s length from the consultant,” he said.

That engineer, John Hecht of West Coast Environmental and Engineering in Ventura, also confirmed he is not involved in the EIR process.

Smith said all current members of the Ojai City Council, and two challengers running for seats on the board, have also been solicited for input on the truck trips.

Stop the Trucks was victorious last year in a similar fight against another mining endeavor, Diamond Rock. In that case, an agreement was made between Stop the Trucks and the mine to use Santa Barbara routes and avoid Route 33 for its truck traffic.

Smith said Stop the Trucks remains resolute in its stance to preserve the Ojai Valley’s foundation of the arts, education and agriculture.

“If you put 600 to 800 trucks on the road every day, you destroy those three things,” he said. “It becomes a Bakersfield. You destroy our community.”