Escondido Neighbors United

Happy Earth Day!  We know our Earth is in trouble and our survival is at risk from climate change. Lots of actions that we need to take are difficult.  But, there are also many that are pretty easy, reduce our carbon footprint, and improve our lives and health at the same time.  Try some of these.  Your heath and happiness will improve and the Earth will be better for them.

De-carbonize your maintenance.
It is easy now to change 2-cycle engines to electric.  Dixieline has the electric leaf-blowers, chainsaws, hedgers on sale.  If you have a gardener, think of their health too.  Anyone using the high-pollution 2-cycle engines in close proximity is harming their health.  Or even better, buy a broom and hand shears.

Pull weeds, don’t spray them.
Pulling weeds is good exercise and doesn’t have any of the health and environmental impacts of poisons in herbicides.

Befriend bees and butterflies.
It is easy to plant a pollinator garden.  These are gardens for bees, butterflies, and other important pollinators.  Remember, our very lives depend on pollinators–plus it is fun to have butterflies to watch! Plant a Monarch Butterfly Waystation  Check out Pollinator Partnership

Love animals, don’t eat them. 
Plant-based dishes are better for the climate, the planet, and your health. Plus, they save money and reduce cruelty in the world. Try reducing the amount of meat and dairy you eat for one week.  If you need plant based food ideas there are tons of recipes online.  Here is a some good source Vegan Recipes.  


Stay home more.
Plan Staycations instead of expensive vacations.  Make friends with your neighbors, explore your local area, support local businesses, drive less, and save money.  All of these are benefits to staying closer to home and reduce carbon footprint of pleasure travel.

Take time to enjoy your happy moments.
We already have so many conditions of happiness in our lives. We have water to drink, air to breathe, two eyes to see, our family and friends, and a beautiful earth to live on.  These are already enough conditions to be happy if we can just notice them.  If we see that we are already happy, we will consume less and live more lightly on the planet.

Of course, this isn’t all it will take, but these are easy and can help. We will share more actions in the coming months.

Happy Earth Day!

The Water Board issued its final response to the many comments they received on the Oak Creek Water Quality Permit.  Unfortunately, the Board ignored requests to require mitigation in the Felicita/San Dieguito Watershed where the damage will be done.  Instead, they will allow the San Luis Rey river to improve at the expense of Felicita Creek.

We appreciate our Supervisor Dave Roberts for weighing on this issue with the community.  Supervisor Roberts Comments

The Board only made one change to the final permit. They did not respond to ENU requests for a public meeting

The permit is expected to be issued on April 20 or soon thereafter.   Final Response to Comments on Oak Creek.    Tentative Final Certification

Escondido Neighbors United does not support with this permit or its findings. We do not agree that avoidable impacts were avoided and that all reasonable measures were taken to protect the precious habitat in the area.  In our view, this project represents a failure of our environmental laws to protect the environment and a failure of our process to mediate the best, or even an acceptable, outcome.

We have tried very hard to work within the system to improve this project.

We encourage everyone to stand up for your neighborhoods and quality of life. Please attend the workshop tonight on the development onslaught.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is the oversight agency for the Chatham Barrel Yard cleanup.  They have posted the most recent documents about the site for public review.  You can get them on the ENVIROSTOR website or at this link  October2015 regular water monitoring report .  This report includes the regular analysis and monitoring results for the most recent round of sampling.  We will be reviewing it and will share our thoughts in the future.

Also, of major importance is the Feasibility Study for Felicita Creek discharges.  This study evaluates options for stopping or reducing the discharges of pollutants from Chatham into Felicita Creek.  This is a high priority for Escondido Neighbors United and we encourage everyone to take a look and weigh in on this.

Thanks to DTSC for making these documents available to us.

Hope you all well and ready for Spring!

A wonderful and helpful new business has just moved to Escondido.  SPINE ZONE is a unique physical therapy treatment for aching backs.  Our members have had amazing success at Spine Zone. The staff  is fantastic, the program is reasonably priced, and the results are really amazing.
Check out their website: Spine Zone Website
There are free consultations if it is your first time.  The program trains you on a series of specially targeted weight machines modified to strengthen all of the muscles related to your back.

If your back has ‘gone out’, then you know what that pain is like.  This is the place for you so it never happens again!  

If you haven’t yet had back failure, do yourself a favor and go to Spine Zone as a preventative measure.  If it helps even one person from excruciating suffering  of back pain, this post will be worth it!
Spine Zone is located at 1600 SOUTH ESCONDIDO BOULEVARD, ESCONDIDO, CA 92025, 844 316 7979
GO!  You won’t regret it!

Mayor Abed and his on-going hostility toward environmental regulation is now getting regional attention.  An excellent article in the San Diego Union Tribune last month outed the Mayor on his failure to comply with the important stormwater regulations. Abeds Parking Lots Skipped Rules.

Then, the Mayor was featured on the, often conservative, editorial page of the same newspaper Abed Compounds his Error documenting his response stating.   The mayor’s response was to blast the water board as politically motivated partisans trying to drag him down. What evidence did he offer? None. His claim that Escondido has been singled out simply doesn’t hold up.

The Water Board is rightly calling Escondido on the carpet for their failure to enforce water quality regulations.   Since the carrot didn’t work the Mayor and the majority of the city council, it is now high time for the stick.

We support strong action on the part of the Regional Water Board.  This city is flagrantly irresponsible about their responsibilities to our precious natural resources.

This post will be where we document the conditions of Felicita Creek pre-Oak Creek development. Runoff, water quality, and erosion impacts on Felicita Creek, Felicita Park, and downstream residents is a major concern that we do not believe has been adequately addressed by the decision-makers in this project.

Here are the videos we offer as attachments to our January 14, 2016 letter.

VIDEOS JANUARY 6, 2016


In the Park and north of Via Rancho Parkway

Felicita Creek from Park road looking North_Jan_6_2016orth

Felicita Creek from park road looking south_Jan-6-2016

Felicita Creek at Yolanda Fleets Driveway Jan 6, 2016

Along Quiet Hills Drive

Along Quiet Hills Drive #1 Jan_6_2016

Along QHD #2

Quiet Hills Drive Bridge covered

At corner of Quiet Hills Drive and Quiet Place

Here is another update from an ally. 


On
December 17th, the County of San Diego  held a scoping meeting regarding a
Notice of Preparation (NOP) to make General Plan Amendments (GPAs) for 43
Property Specific Requests (PSRs).  All 43 of these requests call for zoning
changes to increase density, mostly in rural North County San Diego.   In total,
these requests call for up to an additional 2,800 dwellings.  This meeting was
not Lilac Hills Ranch related, but there are several new requests regarding
property in Valley Center and Bonsall that are in the same vicinity.  It is of grave concern that after 13 years, $18 million dollars, and countless public meetings, developers  are attempting to subvert the General Plan.   It should be noted that the Board
of Supervisors directed the planning department to initiate these GPA/PSR
studies less than 1 year after the General Plan was adopted at an estimated
cost of at least an additional $1.5 million dollars to tax payers.  This lacks
transparency and begs some questions about a conflict of interest.

Here is a link to the scoping meeting and specific maps: http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/pds/advance/PSR.html

The public comment period
ends February 4th. Please write the County and let them know that the General Plan should not be monkeyed with.  There is plenty of growth allowed in the General Plan in the planned places.  They should not be increasing it elsewhere.

We recently received a copy of the County staff comments on the Notice of Preparation for the Safari Highlands Ranch project.  October, 2015 Letter from SD County staff on SHR.  We are especially glad that the staff noted the number of annexations coming from Escondido, lack of impact fees, concerns about PAMA compliance, concerns about storm water compliance, and the lack of an adopted multiple species conservation plan for Escondido.  These are just a few major problems with this project.   Stay tuned!

We hope you had a great holiday!  Here is some news on our ‘favorite’ projects!

1. The Draft 401 Water Quality Certification for Oak Creek has been released for public comment by the Regional Water Quality Control Board.   This is an important and final action related to the permitting of Oak Creek.  Here is the link Draft 401 WQ Cert_Oak_Creek  and the Transmittal letter_Dec_23_2015.  Comments on the document are due to the Regional Board on January 29 by 5:00 pm.


We will have more to say about this document in the coming days.  ENU requested a public meeting on this. ENU_Request_for_Public_Meeting_Oak_Creek_401Cert

More soon!