I am a registered voter in Sonoma County. I urge you to vote NO on the proposal to build a rock quarry and asphalt recycling plant on Roblar Road because:

* The County has not provided any economic analysis in the Environmental Impact Report to prove there is an economic need for rock from this site. There is already adequate gravel supply existing in the county.

* The final EIR proposes 80% of rock mined from the quarry will be used by the applicant for use by his own company, providing him undue market advantage.

* The Environmental Impact Report states there are 165 Conditions of Approval affecting the environment, traffic, wildlife and health and safety that cannot be mitigated if this project is allowed. The risks of this project to the environment, water resources, wildlife and people’s health and safety are so great that the County Counsel took unprecedented action to require the applicant to indemnify the County against damage caused by the mining - but not indemnify residents or liable jurisdictions.

* County taxpayers paid the applicant $2.3 million in 2004 through the Open Space District to preserve Roblar Ranch property so it could be “Kept Open in Perpetuity.” Now the County proposes to release 4 acres of the existing conservation easement to allow the applicant to drive more than 150 gravel trucks per day over the preserved land so the applicant doesn’t have to pay to improve Roblar Road. There is no public benefit to this deal; only the applicant benefits.

* The project site is immediately adjacent to the County landfill closed in the 1970’s that is unlined and uncapped. Neighbors report lead, pesticides, hormones used in chicken farming and gasoline products among other toxins were routinely dumped into the landfill. The County has never tested the unlined benches of the landfill for toxins. Blasting dynamite next to the landfill could destabilize the rock and allow leachates to flow into the adjacent Americano Creek that feeds the Americano Estuary, a federally protected waterway, and contaminate the ground water supply in an area where everyone is on well water.

* Quarry operations will release dangerous particulates into the air that will affect the health of nearby residents and blow through the Roblar Valley nine months of the year toward Cotati and Petaluma. The County has never measured the actual wind velocity along Roblar Road.  The EIR projects nitrous oxide emissions from the quarry will be 53.3 tons more than the allowable threshold in the first year of operation alone. With mitigations, the emissions blowing through the Roblar Valley will still be more than 21.6 tons.

* The greenhouse gas emissions studied in the DEIR do not meet new CEQA emission standards set by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and far exceed allowable thresholds.

* The applicant will strip agriculturally protected land from the Williamson Act thereby going against local zoning and General Plan designations meant to protect agricultural land in the Petaluma Dairy Belt Way.

* Through a County staff recommendation the applicant may conduct toxic asphalt and concrete recycling on site that will increase the potential to contaminate the water supply and release toxins.