The SLO County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) is moving forward with plans to slap the California Department of Parks and Recreation with fines for violating dust mitigation regulations at the Ocean Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
The issue will come before the APCD’s hearing board later this year, despite the report of a third party dust emissions expert, which concluded that pursuing the violations wouldn’t be an adequate solution to the years long back-and-forth between the two entities over the issue of dust pollution at the dunes.
“It is my opinion that the Notice of Violation is not an effective tool to hasten resolution of the ongoing wind erosion problem and disputes between the two parties, and therefore, should be withdrawn,” the expert, W.G. Nickling, wrote in his Oct. 10 report.
The APCD initially notified state parks of the potential violations May 5, stating that the state entity failed to execute dust mitigation measures for the dunes’ 2017 season. Among the violations, APCD alleged that state parks only installed 20 of the 50 acres of wind fencing it was supposed to and removed a dust particulate monitoring station from the dunes’ Oso Flaco area in December 2016 without notifying the APCD of the decision.
After the notice, state parks officials requested a third party review under a dispute resolution process laid out in an agreement between the two parties. Nickling was appointed as the “special master” for the case. Nickling heard arguments from both parties during a joint hearing in early September, and later toured the dunes before making his recommendation.
In his report, Nickling wrote that there was “nothing to be gained” from fining state parks, noting that it would diminish the ability of the agency to rectify dust emission issues over the long term, and called on the two groups to work together to resolve a long-standing lack of trust and communication.
“The two groups should work together cooperatively, as opposed to antagonistically, which seems to have been the model over the past several years,” Nickling wrote.
Noting that neither party was legally bound to follow the special master’s recommendations, the APCD said it was still going to pursue the violations. In written arguments, the APCD stated that while Nickling was an expert on the scientific subject of dust emissions, he was not an expert on the legal interpretation of the state’s dust emission laws.
For APCD Executive Director Larry Allen, who is retiring at the end of the year, the APCD’s action is long overdue.
“They’ve been in violation of our regulations since 2012, and we have not issued a violation up until this point,” Allen said. “Something like this definitely requires enforcement action by the APCD.”
Mathew Fuzie, deputy director for state parks’ Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Division (OHMVD), told New Times that state parks agreed with Nickling’s recommendation and added that he didn’t view disagreements between his department and the APCD as “personal.”
“It’s really their decision what way they want to go,” he said. “I do think that, in order to solve this problem, it’s going to have to be a community-based solution.”
Some had hoped that a five-year dust mitigation plan—approved with a few modifications by the California Coastal Commission on Sept. 14—might be a step toward that solution. Fuzie said that settling the dispute over the violations could impact the project’s timeline.
“It could create some barriers,” Fuzie said. “But we are going to continue to work with the APCD and the [California Air Resources Board] to work toward solutions.”
A hearing on the violations is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 13. The APCD’s hearings board is a group of local individuals selected by members of the APCD’s board of directors.
On Oct. 23, the OHV advocacy group Friends of Oceano Dunes filed a lawsuit against the Coastal Commission over its approval of the five-year dust mitigation plan.
This article appears in October 19-29, 2017.
Why cant they come up with a natural environment method like planting trees as a barrier from the sand landing in residential areas. Not sure why Trilogy was approved if people who live there are going to ruin ourr area and economy by trying to shut down recreation that has been in our area for 75+ Years. It is ashame to shut down the only area beach that has a huge playground for OHVs. Heck, build a huge retaining wall. I know I have heard that the sand goes theough trees and up and over but this is something the wind will do regardless of whether the OHV riders are playing on the beach. The winds that blew a week ago carried dust for miles and this will never be contained so what is the real problem here. I understand the people for shutting diwn the beach are complaining for health reasons but we have been here for 60 years and no one that I know died from silica sand. Many people have died from smoking, alcohol, diabetes, or pourly ran factories, oil spills leading to problems, cancer, Altsheimers, Parkinsons Disease, even fires that cause pollution but no real scientific proof has shown statiscs about deaths from Silica Sand. If people are affected by the sand why dont they move. Several people have moved here from the Big Cities like Los Angeles, Fresno, Bakersfield, Orange County, Antelope Valley, San Francisco, and other States in the US where the pollution levels are out of this world and some of the highest polluted areas in the US. How has these types of pollutions from bad emissions, Diesel Trucks, fire, poor air quality from smog (chemicals), poison in the waterways, etc. affected peoples health and lungs. Many people have moved here in our area creating more pollution for the licals including heavier traffic, trucks, industries we never had in the past, factories, etc. causing our air quality to decline. So I guess you can say many of the people complaining who recently moved here have caused more problems and pollution for the local area by coming here. Did the developers not cut down trees and other landscape moving dirt and sand to build theses new homes. How about all the silica that was disturbed by pouring new concrete and building pathways, sidewalks, and all the blowers from the landscapers moving sand and dirt and pollution in the air creating more pollution for us.
I guess there are two sides to every story and some of these issues are man made but were not much of a problem years ago. How did this become such an issue when people have been living on the Mesa for hundreds of years with no complaints about their health. Yes the population ha grown but maybe this has caused a lot of the problems as well.
Grow trees, build a wall, divert the traffic away from these homes where the people complaining live but again the wind will not stop blowing in their direction so then what?
Concerned about our economy and people who have a huge stake in this area as well. What is the solution for the hundreds of businesses who rely on the tourists to keep this area alive. Food for thought!
Concerned Local