Wetlands advocates say asphalt plan stinks

<p>Docents and advocates for the Petaluma wetlands don’t dispute that a new asphalt plant in the south Sonoma County area could be a boon for freeway widening and other road projects in the works.</p><p>But they believe a North Bay company’s proposal to build that plant between Highway 101 and the Petaluma River across from Shollenberger Park is a case of a good idea in the wrong place.</p><p>“We think it’s going to have a negative impact on the quality of life for the wildlife and for the people out there,” said Gerald Moore, chairman of the Petaluma Wetlands Alliance.</p><p>The wetlands alliance says a draft environmental impact report on the project confirms their concerns, highlighting the expected impacts of the project on air quality, noise and scenery as “significant and unavoidable.”</p><p>The asphalt plant “would dominate the views in the area, standing out against the setting and attracting attention away from the surrounding landscape,” the report concludes. “Due to the project’s scale, many other visual characteristics of the area would be diminished.”</p><p>In addition, the report says pollutants created by the plant’s operation, including nitrogen oxides, would exceed air-quality standards — even after mitigation measures, such as using the latest emissions technology on vehicles and equipment, are applied.</p><p>Plant operations would also exceed daytime noise standards for nearby residents and users of Shollenberger Park, the report found.</p><p>Dutra Materials, a supplier of aggregate rock from a San Rafael quarry and former operator of the now-closed Petaluma quarry, is proposing the asphalt plant for a 38-acre site between the northbound Highway 101 off-ramp at Petaluma Boulevard South and the railroad tracks.</p><p>The project includes a parcel of land east of the tracks along the river, where barges would dock and off-load aggregate materials onto a conveyor belt that crosses over the tracks to connect with the rest of the facility.</p><p>Dutra would relocate its current operation from 1601 Petaluma Boulevard South, across from the former quarry, to the new site — an area known traditionally as Haystack Landing, where a historic farmhouse stood until a fire destroyed it several years ago.</p><p>Both sites are outside of city limits and the Sonoma County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will decide whether the project can proceed.</p><p>At the new plant, 160,000 tons of recycled asphalt and concrete would be imported by truck each year, with about 500,000 tons of material brought from the San Rafael quarry by barge.</p><p>The plant would operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, with evening and weekend hours “as needed” to meet delivery schedules for road projects, the draft EIR states.</p><p>Night and weekend operations would only add to the project’s already significant impacts at Shollenberger, Alman Marsh and the planned public-access trails at the city’s new sewer plant, Moore said.</p><p>Those areas comprise more than 500 acres of public wetlands, serving as a draw not only for tourism and outdoor enthusiasts but also a successful docent-led education program for schoolchildren, he said.</p><p>Noise is also a big concern because of a nesting rookery on the northwest corner of the project, said Bob Dyer, senior wetlands docent at Shollenberger.</p><p>Since monitoring of the rookery began in 2003, Dyer and others have counted about 250 Great Egret, Snowy Egret and Blue Heron chicks born there, he said.</p><p>“It’s been a productive colony and we’re concerned about the impact of a noisy asphalt factory very close by,” he said.</p><p>Putting a large industrial plant in the middle of such an area can be done in a more environmentally sound way, the wetlands alliance believes.</p><p>The group would like to see the plant redesigned, night operations be prohibited and the asphalt-recycling component dropped to avoid the most significant noise impacts.</p><p>Those steps are called out in the draft EIR as part of an alternative plan for the plant, which would result in fewer truck trips and air-quality impacts, along with less visibility from both Shollenberg-er and Highway 101.</p><p>A Dutra representative did not return calls for comment.</p><p>Moore said the company shouldn’t be prevented from establishing an appropriate project site along the river, since river-dependent businesses are needed in Petaluma. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will dredge the river every few years if the waterway is used for commerce.</p><p>And existing industrial uses near the Petaluma wetlands can be good neighbors, he said, citing Shamrock Materials’ barge site north of the proposed Dutra plant.</p><p>“It’s important to keep them here along the river,” he said of Dutra. “That said, the Petaluma Wetlands Alliance feels they should do everything technically possible to make themselves invisible from us, across the river.”</p><p>Copies of the EIR are available at the Petaluma library and and online at www.sonoma-county.org/prmd/docs/ eir/dutradeir.</p><p>Comments on the draft EIR will be accepted until Wednes-day, Feb. 27 by e-mail at spadovan@sonoma-county.org or by mail to the Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Dept., 2550 Ventura Ave., Santa Rosa, 95403.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>