Final Reminder: Council Meeting today 4:30.

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

Just a quick reminder that the final Council vote will be today at 4:30 at Escondido City Hall.

Here are some of the excellent letters that have been filed on this project

San Diego Audubon Society and from our counsel Everett DeLano DeLano for ENU

Thanks to all the people who have written and supported our efforts.

Our Media Release

Escondido Neighbors United

An alliance of engaged
residents working for the benefit of rural, urban, and natural communities in
the Escondido Area.

For Immediate
Release: Contact: Laura Hunter,
619-997-9983

Community to Oppose Oak
Creek

Housing Development in
Escondido

On March 4,
2015, members of Escondido Neighbors
United (ENU) will join other residents and organizations to present their
opposition to the proposed Oak Creek Housing Development at the final City
Council hearing on the project. They
will urge the City Council, instead, to consider a less dense option called,
Community Creek or defer decision until more is known about the environmental
condition of the site.

Oak Creek is a 65-home, gated housing development
proposed on farmland adjacent to Felicita Park and annexed from the County to
the City. The proposal will cause the
destruction of hundreds of native oak trees and the dense development footprint
adds to threats of erosion and runoff downstream where impacts are already
severe. County Parks Department’s concerns about potential impacts to
Felicita Park have yet to be addressed.

Escondido Neighbors United
has been engaged on the Oak Creek housing proposal for many months. ENU members have commented extensively on
the project about impacts and concerns related to wildlife, oak trees, traffic,
community character, waste contamination, air quality, water quality in the
streams, water supply, and cultural resources, but improvements have not been
made. In fact, the project was changed
to worsen the impacts

Also troubling is that past sampling shows the
Chatham plumes are under about a third of the Oak Creek site. However,
conditions cannot be fully known because the property owner refused access to
technical consultants for scheduled testing of wells on-site. One of the wells has measured multiple contaminants in the past so
needs to be tested. Soil vapors and groundwater pollution were found
within the property lines and some of the new homes are proposed over plume
areas.

ENU member and neighbor of the site Eva Salazar stated,
“I request that no homes are built
over the plume. If this project is approved I don’t want my future
neighbors to be in the same situation I am in, living on a plume of
contaminated ground water wondering what toll this will take on my health”.

Although the State Department of Toxic Substances
Control said the pollution is adequately characterized and will degrade given
enough time, this contradicts facts on the ground. The most recent
monitoring shows pollution entering Felicita Creek at the highest levels to
date, contamination has spread to new wells, and wells on the Oak Creek site
were prevented from being tested. A sister agency, the Regional Water
Quality Control Board, disagrees that the contamination strategy is
working.

Oak Creek is also heavily reliant on constructed
storm water features to address increases in runoff. The City has stated
that compliance with the storm water permit will ensure no downstream
erosion. However, on February 10, 2015 the Regional Water Board filed an
official Notice of Violation against the city of Escondido for many failures to
enforce the storm water rules. More information can be found here, http://escondidoneighborsunited.blogspot.com/2015/02/escondido-receives-official-notice-of.html

Escondido Neighbors United, will ask the City of
Escondido to deny Oak Creek, require a less dense alternative, get serious
about enforcing water runoff rules, and require remediation of pollution before
annexation.

ENU
members will also be advocating instead for consideration of Community
Creek—A Balanced Option. Community
Creek proposes a reduced footprint and density alternative and
appropriate conditions for consideration.
Community Creek achieves many benefits:

·
Protects
more wetlands but allows development to occur,

·
Reduces
negative impacts to the streams and avoids disruption of creek,

·
Reduces
loss of native oak trees,

·
Better
supports wildlife,

·
Protects
clean water and prevents downstream erosion and impacts ,

·
Reduces
traffic and needed infrastructure,

·
Enhances
and integrates with existing neighbors, not isolates from them

Escondido Neighbors United
(ENU) is a local community group active in the SW Escondido area working to
protect the environment and local communities.
ENU is committed with preserving our community, environmental, cultural resources, Felicita Park, and quality of life of the neighborhoods in
our area. More information is at www.escondidoneighbors.org

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

REMINDER Final Oak Creek Decision Wednesday MARCH 4 at 4:30 Please Attend

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

The final City Council hearing and vote for Oak Creek will take place at 4:30 this Wednesday, March 4th. Information can be found here March 4 Hearing Action Alert

Last Chance to Speak out against

Oak Creek Housing Project

Urge the City Council to Vote NO on Oak Creek

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

4:30 pm

Escondido City Council Chambers

ENU Members submitted the following Community Commentary to the San Diego UT. It was published Saturday but, since the link is not available, we have provided our submittal below FYI.

Residents call for action to stem
tide of water, development woes

By Fred Progner and Ron Forster,
Members, Escondido Neighbors United and residents of southwest Escondido.

We live in a beautiful rural, oak-studded neighborhood near Felicita
Park in North County. But, pollution and
development threaten our area and we aren’t getting help from local and state
government.

We are
struggling to stop the flow of legacy pollution from the Chatham Barrel Yard, a
State ‘superfund’ site, first discovered over 30 years ago. Industrial waste from Chatham has contaminated
groundwater and plumes now extend over a mile from the original dump site. Plumes have traveled under many properties
and contaminated local irrigation wells.
If it keeps going, it could reach Lake Hodges, an emergency water supply
reservoir.

Also, Oak
Creek, a gated housing development proposed on farmland adjacent to Felicita
Park will soon be voted on by Escondido City Council. It turns out Oak Creek is not good for oaks
or creeks or us. The proposal will
cause the destruction of hundreds of native oak trees and the dense development
footprint adds to threats of erosion and runoff downstream where impacts are
already severe. County Parks
Department’s concerns about potential impacts to Felicita Park have yet to be
addressed.

Also
troubling is that past sampling shows the Chatham plumes are under about a
third of the Oak Creek site. However,
conditions cannot be fully known because the property owner refused access to
technical consultants for scheduled testing of wells on-site. One of the wells has measured multiple
contaminants in the past so needs to be tested.
Soil vapors and groundwater pollution were measured within the property
and some of the new homes are proposed over plume areas.

Although the
State Department of Toxic Substances Control said the pollution is adequately
characterized and will degrade given enough time, this contradicts facts on the
ground. The most recent monitoring shows
pollution entering Felicita Creek at the highest levels to date, contamination
has spread to new wells, and wells on the Oak Creek site were prevented from
being tested. Having lived with this for
20 years already, we question whether the agency charged with protecting human
health from toxic effects is doing enough.

Oak Creek is
also heavily reliant on constructed storm water features to address increases
in runoff. The City assures us we can
trust that compliance with the storm water permit will ensure no downstream
erosion. However, last week the Regional
Water Board filed an official Notice of Violation against the city of Escondido
for many failures to enforce the storm water rules. We no longer trust that we can rely on City
oversight.

Our community
group, Escondido Neighbors United, is calling for action.

We call on
the City of Escondido to deny Oak Creek, require a less dense alternative, get
serious about enforcing storm water rules, and require remediation of pollution
before annexation.

We call on
Department of Toxic Substances Control to require testing of all wells,
treatment systems for contaminated irrigation wells, and precautionary measures
to reduce risks.

Until then,
we will continue to stand up and defend our creek, our beautiful park, and our
community.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Environmental Health Coalition Weighs in on Recent Chatham Reports

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

Environmental health experts at Environmental Health Coalition filed this comment letter today on the most recent monitoring reports on the Chatham contamination. EHC Chatham Comment Letter Feb 26 2015.
There is important information about 1,4-Dioxane and it speaks eloquently to several issues we are facing locally. We are very grateful to EHC to their enduring commitment to community health.

Here are some excerpts

Regarding whether Natural Attenuation is occurring:

“The latest monitoring
results do not provide evidence that natural attenuation is occurring. Increased levels of TCE occur at sampling
sites up and down Felicita Creek, including both the northern and southern
portions. Not only are the levels not diminishing, this pattern of monitoring results does not support the Hargis
contention that levels in the more northerly part of the creek will diminish
first, followed by levels in the down gradient portions of the creek and plume.
In fact, these results show neither a short term nor a long term pattern of
attenuation in TCE levels. Levels in FC-4, one of the wells in the northern
part of Felicita Park, show an increasing trend over the 20-year period from
1994 through mid-2014, as charted in Figure 7 of the Hargis Technical
Memorandum of January 16, 2015.

Another well in the
northern area of the Park, FC11/11A, shows an increase since the previous round
of monitoring in April 2014. Levels of TCE in MW-58 appear to be exactly the
same in the most recent results as they were 15 years ago, in 2000, also shown
in Figure 7.”

Regarding the length of time of the natural attenuation:

“Not only do these results
fail to support the PRP consultant’s theory, the PRP group fails to provide any
estimates of how long they expect this natural attenuation process to take. How
long are they expecting Felicita Creek and groundwater to remain contaminated?
How many more years are they asking Escondido families to be patient while
upwelling of contaminants continues into their neighborhood park and their
groundwater wells? A generation of children has grown up since the Chatham
plume began its migration, and we’re still being told that attenuation will
eventually occur. It is past time for DTSC to demand that the PRPs take additional
action to remediate the plume, as well as to treat all wells that have
measurable levels of chlorinated hydrocarbons or 1,4-dioxane.”

Regarding what the MCL does and doesn’t mean and a preference for the PHGs:

“Finally, we urge DTSC to
bear in mind that MCLs are only as health protective as is technologically and
economically feasible. They are not truly health protective standards, and it is
inaccurate to state or imply that water meeting MCL levels is “safe.” In the
case of TCE, which has both an MCL and a Public Health Goal (PHG), we urge you
to use the PHG as the basis for decisions to post signs along the creek, and as
a cleanup level for creek and well water.”

Regarding health information on 1,4-Dioxane

“Levels of other
contaminants are also of continuing concern. 1, 4-Dioxane levels are high in several
wells, including an all-time high of 100 μg/l in FC-04, a level 33 times the
OEHHA public health notification level of 3 μg/l. This is of particular concern
in a location where children may be exposed. 1,4-Dioxane has been listed on
California’s Prop. 65 list as a carcinogen since 1988. Most of the human
toxicology of the substance derives from worker exposure; effects of low dose
exposure to children are not known. Nor has OEHHA developed a child-specific
reference dose for this compound. 1,4-Dioxane exposure can occur through dermal
exposure as well as inhalation and ingestion — all plausible routes of
exposure for children playing in or near the creek. In short, the possible
impacts of exposing children to 1,4-dioxane are not known, and DTSC must act to
protect children who visit the park.”

Please read this letter for yourself. You will learn a lot.

If you are not already a member of this amazing group, please join! You can find more information here Environmental Health Coalition

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

FINAL City Council Meeting is MARCH 4, 4:30 pm Last chance to speak out against Oak Creek Housing Development. PLEASE ATTEND

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

Table of Contents

ACTION ALERT Here is a downloadable version to share with your neighbors and friends. March 4 Hearing Action Alert

Last Chance to Speak out against

Oak Creek Housing Project

Urge the City Council to Vote NO on Oak
Creek

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

4:30 pm

Escondido City Council Chambers

Escondido
City Council will make their final decision on the Oak Creek housing
development in southwest Escondido. Oak
Creek will build 65 home, gated community in a floodplain on rural open space
and farmland adjacent to Felicita Park on the ‘duck pond’ property. It will annex over 40-acres to the city and
build massive homes on compact lots that will encroach on the creeks. Escondido Neighbors has engaged extensively to
try to secure improvements in the project to reduce impacts to wildlife, oak
trees, traffic, community character, air quality, water quality, flooding,
water supply, contaminated groundwater plume, and cultural resources but
improvements have not been made. In
fact, the project was changed and will worsen the impacts.

Escondido Neighbors United
(ENU) OPPOSES the plan for the following reasons:

·
Project
is too dense for the rural character of the area and will have negative impacts
on surrounding area and on our beloved Felicita Park.

·
Flooding
risks and traffic increases are not adequately addressed or mitigated.

·
Buffer
areas between habitat and development are grossly inadequate.

·
Impacts
to the mature native trees, creek, and habitat are significant.

·
New
homes should not be built over contaminated areas and city should not annex
contaminated land.

·
Project
allows a minimum development buffer from wetlands of ZERO feet and will
irrevocably damage the riparian areas.

·
New
proposed project is too extreme a density for this location and community. A
more balanced approach should be sought.

·
Project
does not adequately avoid impacts to environment and community and the FEIR is deficient
in its analysis and mitigation in critical areas.

Help us protect our
neighborhood. OPPOSE Oak Creek as proposed.

There are better alternatives. Community Alternative

Take Action: Attend the
hearing on March 4 @ 4:30

Write to the Mayor and
Council:

City
of Escondido

201
North Broadway

Escondido,
CA 92025-2798

Fax
760-839-4313

Or
email:

SAbed@escondido.org

ODiaz@escondido.org

MMorasco@escondido.org

EGallo@escondido.org

JMasson@escondido.org

You
can get more information about the project here: http://escondidoneighborsunited.blogspot.com/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Escondido Receives Official Notice of VIOLATION of Storm water Permit from Water Board

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

There is now even more evidence why the community can not trust Escondido to comply with or enforce environmental laws.

Last week, on February 10, 2015, the City of Escondido received a Notice of Violation (NOV) for violations of municipal storm water permit requirements. Water Board Cover Letter

The violations include:

Failure to prevent the discharge of pollutants per permit requirements,
Failure to implement the adopted storm water mitigation plan
Failure to adequately enforce permit standards at priority development sites.

The 4-page NOV notice cites multiple examples of these failures. The city has failed to fix known problems for years. In six of seven priority development projects inspected BMPs have been found to be ineffective and/or inadequately maintained. In some cases the City has allowed priority development projects (PDP) to be completed with missing permanent treatment BMPs for prolonged periods of time. In one case 19 inlet filters were to be installed in 2009 but most were not installed until November 2014. The NOV also cites the inquiry involving the 540 W. Grand parking lot, in this category–the parking lot owned by Escondido Mayor Abed. We have previously raised concerns about this here, Mayor Failed to Comply.

Violations include BMPs that were designed or installed incorrectly, failure to inspect at proper times, ineffective vegetative BMPs, missing storm drain insert filters, sediment overwhelming BMPs, lack of required maintenance, and many other issues. Even when problems were found, the NOV notes, “The City identified 9 PDPs that had structural BMP violations, but the City issued 0 enforcement actions” These finally lead the Water Board to the conclusions that the “The City’s overall program is not adequate to ensure proper functioning of the treatment control BMPs…” The violations are summarized here Notice of Violation To Escondido and the Water Board Audit Report provide more detail and photos of the violations.

Specific examples include one case where there was supposed to be a bioswale that would slow water and allow it to seep into the ground,…

“A concrete v-ditch was found where the bioswale should have been…There were no treatment control BMPs within the v-ditch or at the inlet or outlet of the v-ditch.”

Concrete does nothing to slow or treat storm water and only worsens erosion, flooding, and water quality. These kinds of problems are exactly the kind of violations and failure to enforce that, in our case, puts downstream neighbors at risk relative to Oak Creek. In other examples, problems noticed by the staff in 2011/2012 were the same deficiencies with the same BMPs found in 2014. It appears that, even when the city found violations, little was done and no enforcement was taken.

Here is the mystery. The NOV states, “While the City seems to be able to identify issues in need of correction, the City lacks an effective enforcement process to resolve the deficiencies and bring the facilities back into compliance with Order No. R9-2007-0001.” This should be looked into. Why is the City not enforcing the storm water rules? Who or what is stopping them? Is this a problem of staff follow-up or is it a failure of the Executive or Mayor and Council to direct? Or, is it the result of direction being given from some quarter to not enforce?

This is more of the mounting evidence regarding why Escondido Neighbors United has major concerns about the ability, or willingness, of the city to enforce the storm water regulations related to the Oak Creek housing project. We have been told time and time again that we should be satisfied and that there will be no impacts because the project will comply with regulations. This has not happened in 6 of 7 examples in Escondido. Why should we have confidence it would happen at Oak Creek?

These City violations, coupled with eight ‘significant’ violations issued to New Urban West in 2002 of its dewatering permit during construction of Brookside (2002 Report of NPDES Violations ) leave us with no confidence that the rules will be complied with or that our water quality and our local creek will be protected.

It is yet another reason that we cannot support the Oak Creek housing development in the density proposed with its heavy reliance on storm water mitigation and controls. Apparently, compliance with the rules is not the standard in Escondido and we would be foolish to rely on it.

The obvious question is, does Escondido even deserve the ability to annex more property when they can’t handle the property they already have?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Channel 10 News: Report on Chatham plume expansion

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

Here is a link to the Channel 10 News Report: Environmental Group Says Toxic Plume in Escondido has spread tonight. There are questions about whether access was denied to sites for testing or not. Our letter cites the December 12, 2014 consultants report from Hargis and Associates, which states on page 4 that,

the regional well deJong2
property owner did not grant access to
the Group for scheduled groundwater sampling in October 2014, or for water
level measurement of deJong 2 or 34-E4. (HA, Dec. 12, 2014 report, p. 4, emphasis added)

We have requested action from the state regulatory agencies. We will post any responses we receive from them here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

New Chatham Reports: Contamination in Felicita Creek at new high. Plume now south of Via Rancho Parkway.

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

We are sorry to report that we have very bad news. We have finally had a chance to review the January 16 Felicita Creek Evaluation Update and the Semi-Annual Monitoring Report Dec 12, 2014

Escondido Neighbors United filed this letter today with the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) ENU to DTSC Feb 16 2015 Requesting action on Chatham

In short, collectively, these reports show that results recorded:

· a return to some of the highest recorded levels so far of TCE, PCE, 1,2-DCE, and 1,4-dioxane in the creek and

·
the
contamination plume of 1, 4-dioxane is now south of Via Rancho Parkway.

Further, the fact that owners of wells on the Oak Creek/Homeland site refused access to the consultants for testing is completely unacceptable and undermines the overall assessment.
As is well-known, this area is under consideration for development into homes
where families and children will be present.

It is clear the contamination continues expanding unabated and more must be done. This situation is intolerable and we have all waited long enough. We are calling on the regulatory agencies to demand more action.

Please review these reports for yourself. We will keep you posted.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A good news story: Zen Buddhist nuns getting new eco-friendly homes in the Coast News

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

A wonderful article about a compelling and unique project in Escondido was included in the Coast News today.
Straw Bale Eco-Homes Article. It is so great to have local news outlets covering north county news. Please read and support all independent news sources that cover local stories. It’s important!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Support Clean Water in Escondido- Write the Water Board to Urge strong Water Quality Improvement Plans for local Watersheds.

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

Here is another important opportunity to support clean water in our region. There are two water quality improvement plans that have recently been submitted to the Regional Water Board.

San Dieguito Watershed Water Quality Improvement Plan and

Carlsbad Watershed Water Quality Improvement Plan

Interested persons wishing to submit comments on the following draft documents must submit them so that they are received no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 29, 2015. Written comments should be submitted electronically to

For San Dieguito
SanDiego@waterboards.ca.govAttention: Christina Arias

For Carlsbad
SanDiego@waterboards.ca.govAttention: Laurie Walsh

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

UT San Diego Article on Planning Commission OK for Oak Creek

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Escondido Neighbors United

While the planning commission meeting didn’t go as we’d hoped, UT San Diego Article on Planning Commission OK, we did receive some good news during the staff presentation. It sounds like the interior clear glass firewalls have been removed. Who ever made that decision, we thank you! This will reduce impacts to the very wildlife we are hoping to support in the area.

Stay tuned. City Council hearing expected for March 4th.

ENU quoted in the article.

“We oppose this project because a dense, fenced in community of monster mansion homes is completely incompatible with the community and the neighborhood we love,” said the group’s leader, Laura Hunter.

“The bottom line is Oak Creek is bad for the oaks and bad for the creek and its bad for our neighborhood.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment