Protect Morro Bay from further industrial use
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About the proposed battery storage plant at Morro Bay and the city's environmental impact report: When I read the project's only "significant and unavoidable" impact would be to remove a historical resource, I thought of course that meant Morro Rock. No! It meant the smokestacks.
I could not believe my eyes at the incredibly ugly plan the city and Vistra Corp. have for one of the most beautiful bays in California. Let me get this straight. The site used to be an oil tank farm that contaminated the land. So now it can "only be safely used for industrial or commercial purposes." In other words, pollution on top of pollution. Instead of cleaning up the site, Vistra could avoid doing that by building another polluting industrial facility on it. How convenient!
Meanwhile, Morro Bay's beauty would be defiled and destroyed, its human and animal population traumatized during construction and for years to come. There would be no going back. In 40 years, when the facility is decommissioned, the same problem would exist—what to do with a polluted battery storage site on a ruined part of the Central Coast.
It is just unbelievable that the city of Morro Bay and the California Coastal Commission would allow this travesty to occur. Yes, we need energy. No one disputes that, or battery storage plants. But not in Morro Bay!
We have allowed destruction in Morro Bay in the past. Morro Rock, the iconic Gibraltar of the Pacific, was almost quarried into nothingness by the Army Corps of Engineers from 1889 to 1969 when 250,000 tons of rock were removed from it. The plan was to pulverize it completely, but it was saved by conservationist voices of reason.
Morro Rock is a California Historical Landmark, sacred to the Salinan and Chumash tribes, and beloved by residents and visitors for its majesty and beauty. It should never have been quarried. An oil tank farm and a power plant should never have been built near it. And a battery plant should not be allowed to compound this desecration.
The owners of the land should clean it up, not pollute it more. Morro Bay should be preserved and cherished as a special place on the Central Coast for present and future generations. It's time for preservationists to stand up!
Charlotte Daigle
San Luis Obispo
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