Bright lights

Meet the rising stars of SLO’s increasingly successful environmental movement

BY TRACY IDELL HAMILTON

San Luis Obispo County is lucky (or cursed, depending on your point of view) to have a large, active environmental community always ready to fight the good fight on any front.

Scanning news reports or position papers on various causes–growth, water quality, coastal protection, stream habitat, land use, endangered species protection–one keeps coming across the same cast of characters.

We know who the leaders of the environmental movement are, we read their names in these pages, see their images on TV. We hear Tarren Collins, president of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, expound on the mismanagement of the Oceano Dunes. We see Pam Heatherington, executive director of ECOSLO, agitating for 100 percent conservation of Hearst Ranch. We witness Jude Rock, chair of Santa Margarita Area Residents Together, trying to reduce development on Santa Margarita Ranch. And over there, isn’t that self-described eco-hooligan Bill Deneen pleading for preservation of his beloved Nipomo Dunes?

There are more names, of course, more people who now work or previously toiled for the environment in all sorts of capacities: former ECOSLO director Geoff Land, Greenspace Cambria President Rick Hawley, Mothers for Peace mater familias Rochelle Becker, Environmental Defense Center analyst Gordon Hensley. And let’s not forget former local eco mover and shaker Sarah Christie, who now works from Sacramento to protect our coastline as the Coastal Commission’s legislative coordinator.

Talk to any one of the above, and they all heap praise on each other, not wanting to leave anyone out when it comes time to dole out eco-credits. "All of these people, in their own way, have rolled up their sleeves and really delivered," says the Sierra Club’s Collins. "The base was built before us–and the momentum is really growing."

While these folks are hardly yesterday’s news, New Times wants to know who the up-and-comers are, wants to know who will carry the torch when today’s leaders move up, on or out.

Cast of characters

First, the lawyers. Steve Crandall and the Environmental Defense Center are both relative newcomers to the Central Coast, but already their presence within the community is considered paramount to continued environmental successes.

Crandall, who has his own practice, also just joined up with the law firm Smith and Tardiff to become Smith, Tardiff and Crandall. He comes from a successful environmental practice in San Diego, where he worked on such high-profile cases as the Exxon Valdez spill, the Taco Bell employment class action and various tobacco litigation efforts.

Closer to home, Crandall also helped prosecute PG&E for lying about the amount of fish killed in Diablo Canyon’s entrainment system, and represented citizens of Avila Beach against Unocal. Because he was working so much on the Central Coast–where his grandfather and great-aunt homesteaded in the 19th century–Crandall and his wife decided to relocate here. He’s been busy ever since.

"I sleep better at night in Sacramento knowing that Steve Crandall sleeps at night in San Luis Obispo," says Coastal Commission legislative coordinator Christie.

Crandall represented Santa Margarita Area Residents Together (SMART) when he wrote a letter to the county supervisors warning that fast-tracking Rob Rossi’s proposed Santa Margarita development violated the Brown Act. The county is trying to comply, Crandall says, but "we wanted to illustrate some of the subterfuge that’s going on" within county planning policies. "It was blatant politics to move forward on that subdivision without environmental review."

The county will see more litigation of its land-use decisions, Crandall predicts. Still, county staff does a good job, he says. "They want to do the right thing. But the leadership here is very disappointing. They rubber-stamp so much development." The judiciary in the county hasn’t seen much environmental law so far, Crandall says, but that will change as citizen groups mobilize to challenge county decisions.

Crandall also represented now-SLO City Councilmember Christine Mulholland and school teacher Michael Sullivan in their successful challenge to a 33-lot, 118-acre subdivision at the edge of the city’s northwest boundary. As judges see that these cases are meritorious, Crandall says, county supes are going to have to start following environmental laws more closely–or it’s going to cost them dearly. "The board is going to realize it can’t keep issuing these negative declarations" that allow for development without environmental review.

When Crandall compares San Luis Obispo County to San Diego County, he is hopeful. But he thinks locals need to start paying attention to their environment right now. "In San Diego now, traffic has everyone’s attention, but it’s too late. It’s far too late. I lose sleep when I think about what could happen here if we’re complacent."

Recent victories, increasing momentum and having the law on their side should hearten enviros here, Crandall says. In San Diego, the movement was very downtrodden. Not here. SLO enviros are very organized, active and optimistic, he says. But they must support the organizations that can help win the battles, organizations like the Environmental Defense Center.

Founded almost 25 years ago in Santa Barbara, EDC is headed by Mindy Lorenz, who opened an office in San Luis Obispo in 1999. The office staff then consisted of Lorenz as managing director and one part-time attorney. Today, the nonprofit public interest firm boasts a full-time lawyer, Babak Naficy, and environmental analyst Gordon Hensley.

"The EDC has helped immensely," says Collins. "The law is a tremendous resource for us, so for them to have an office here is huge."

Lorenz says EDC, which offers free or low-cost legal services to citizen groups rather than individuals, uses CEQA, the state environmental laws of public review, when it challenges land-use decisions. EDC represented Save the Mesa against the county for exceeding the area’s growth cap. That case was settled, forcing the county to look at the cumulative effects–including water availability–of growth on the Mesa when it reviews potential development.

On Nov. 30, EDC and the Sierra Club announced a lawsuit against the state parks department for mismanagement of the Oceano Dunes Recreation Area, and EDC is representing Paso Watch in talks over David Weyrich’s proposed Santa Ysabel Ranch development. "It remains to be seen if we can reach a settlement agreement before litigation," says Lorenz.

But the most high-profile environmental cause on EDC’s horizon is preservation of Hearst Ranch. That will be the battle to watch.

Lorenz agrees with Crandall that the county will continue to field lawsuits if it continues to operate in its business-as-usual, developer-friendly style. "There’s no question," she says. "We’ll make sure that happens."

Next wave

Litigation–or the threat of–isn’t the only way up-and-coming enviros are getting things done. The current chair of the San Luis Bay chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, Matthew Fleming, is taking a more cooperative approach. At the same time, he was mentioned by more than one environmental leader as a player to watch.

"Surfrider is really starting to come up," says ECOSLO’s Heatherington. "Of course, mobilizing surfers is a little like herding cats. If the surf is up, they’re all gone."

Fleming, curls still wet from the water, laughs at the characterization, but he’s more than just a crusading surfer. A year away from tenure at Cuesta College, Fleming also serves as the faculty union’s vice president.

While Surfrider has had some recent successes–most notably forcing The Cliffs in Pismo Beach to remove its illegal seawall (the surf is already better, Fleming says)–the chapter’s biggest push right now is over water quality and winter testing.

Because the county’s water-testing policies are based on a model from Los Angeles, which has high summer beach usage, SLO County’s beaches are only tested from March through October–even though usage is higher here in the winter, when the waves are better and the water warmer.

Surfrider tested the water at local beaches after the first big rains this year and found pollution levels from bacteria such as e. coli and fecal coliform as much as three times what state levels allow. "And I was out surfing that day," says Fleming, grimacing at the thought. It’s crucial that the public know the risks when they get in the water, he says, so they can make informed decisions about whether to go out.

Not satisfied with only raising public awareness, Fleming wants to see the county fund water testing January through December. Results from Surfrider’s tests should make a strong argument for year-round funding, and he says the county’s Environmental Health Department supports Surfrider’s efforts. Until the county ponies up, however, Fleming and others will be out there in hip boots, testing the water.

Told he was named an upcoming leader, Fleming says it’s easy to get sucked in. "The county is really under siege from development," he says. "I’d love to [work on environmental issues] full time if I could get paid for it."

Fleming, too, is pleased with the direction SLO’s environmental movement is headed. He credits Heatherington for helping bring the community together at the first-ever Eco-Summit, held on Dec. 1. Meeting others fighting different but related issues, defining the movement’s biggest goals, and uniting behind common goals really gives the movement a boost, he says.

The Greening of the board

One place enviros have been getting a decades-long boost is from Eric Greening, a fixture at SLO Board of Supervisor meetings. Although he’s been around for years, he keeps a pretty low-profile beyond board meetings and volunteering for ECOSLO.

Unlike many other regulars who attend the supes’ meetings, Greening is listened to by the board, says Heatherington. That’s because rather than ranting, Greening spends hours doing research on an issue, and will offer the board relevant input and criticism.

"You can often find Eric in the law library, researching an issue," says Heatherington. "He’s meticulous." She says at the ECOSLO office, she and Greening will brainstorm together, "and I’ve taken direction from him more than once." Greening was the first to raise alarm bells about the planning department’s request that the supes raise appeal fees to the market rates.

"There are serious issues of environmental justice, unequal protection of the law and taxation without representation," Greening wrote the board. After his and others’ testimony, the supes chose to form a citizen’s committee to study the issue further.

Greening received an award recently from elder eco-statesman Deneen for his 25-year-long focus on the environment–"all without a car, and within three-minute segments."

An award for unflinching focus could also go to Jack McCurdy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former Los Angeles Times reporter who now co-chairs the Coastal Alliance on Plant Expansion.

When CAPE first formed, Coastal Commission honchette Christie says she appreciated that the group wanted to protect citizens of Morro Bay from the adverse effects of a new power plant, "But I thought, man, what a losing battle. They’ll never get anywhere."

Marginalized by Duke, by the mainstream press and by members of the Morro Bay City Council, CAPE plugged along and now is watching the tide turn. A key claim of Duke’s–that the new plant will suck in less Morro Bay Estuary water, therefore killing less fish and larvae than the old plant–has just been disputed in the latest status report by the Regional Water Quality Control Board (read the full story on page 9).

Still, CAPE and McCurdy will not rest. The group continues to press the California Energy Commission to require more stringent pollution controls on the proposed plant, and to require the new plant to use dry cooling, which would use no water from the estuary.

Other members of the county’s environmental movement won’t be resting either, not the high-profile names in the news, not the rank-and-file who work behind the scenes, not the attorneys representing citizen groups. And because passion and commitment never sleep, tomorrow’s leaders are always on the lookout for compatible bedfellows.

"If there are more ‘up and coming’s’ out there," Surfrider’s Fleming says, "I want ’em. We need help." Æ

Staff writer Tracy Hamilton may be reached at [email protected].