Sample Comment Messages
Regarding LA County Flood's Devil's Gate RFEIR
Days Left to Comment:
The Guide to Comments page will give you a good idea of some of the most important issues regarding County Floods revision to the EIR on Devil's Gate Dam and Hahamongna Watershed Park. We recommend that you select one or more of the issues that concern you the most to comment on. Be sure to get your comments in by the September 18th deadline.
Deadline: September 18, 2017 FEIR Revisions
Send comments to: reservoircleanouts@dpw.lacounty.gov
Here Are Some Good Examples of Comments Submitted
| Official ASF/Audubon Submittal | “The District has done less than the bare minimum necessary to bring the Project’s RFEIR into compliance with CEQA.” “The RFEIR does not account for the presence of federally endangered and state species of concern on the Project Site…As a result, LACFCD’s proposal for habitat enhancement as compensatory mitigation would result in a net loss of habitat. Consequently, any habitat enhancement activities that are conducted as compensatory mitigation warrant a mitigation ratio much greater than 1:1.” “Due to numerous factors, the Project requires a mitigation ratio of at least 4:1 to have a less than significant impact on biological resources.” “However, the RFEIR fails to identify the specific performance standards that would be applied to these variables (i.e., the specific values that would constitute success). For example, would mitigation sites that had half the species richness of reference sites be considered a success, or do mitigation sites need to achieve the same species richness as the reference sites to be considered a success?” |
| Christle Balvin | "After almost 25 years of inaction where the County has allowed the sediment to build up without water overflowing the dam, it now maintains urgent action is needed to avoid the possible threat of two 50-year storms. Based on the historic record, what is the actual probably of even one 50-year storm? What about two? With the retrofitting and strengthening of Devil’s Gate Dam over 10 years ago, what amount of rainfall and storm run-off constitutes an actual threat to downstream residents?" |
| William Christian | “FCD’s proposed mitigation, relying heavily on future promises, including financial support, and unspecified adaptive management, is seriously inadequate.” |
| Jonathan Frame | "The three areas of revision made in this recirculation were requested hundreds of times by stakeholders from the beginning of the public’s involvement in the program. The fact that the County waited until the Court has ordered the inclusion of these aspects of the project is a testament to the County’s complete disregard for the people and environment which this project will affect" |
| Friends of Hahamongna | "The recirculated portions of the FEIR do not meet the orders mandated in Judge Chalfant’s ruling and, therefore, the FEIR still has critical defects in the areas of biological resource impacts and cumulatively considered impacts." |
| Holly Schiefellbein | While public safety should be taken into account, this plan is an environmentally devastating plan taking place in some of the rarest habitat types in Southern California |
| Mickey Long | “The permanent loss of 51 acres of mature willows and temporary destruction of 70 acres, 5 years of trucks removing sediment out of the basin is unacceptable, and not sustainable in the long term.” |
| Johnathan Perisho | “The EIR states that mitigation may occur both on and off site in the greater Los Angeles watershed, but there is nowhere that can replace the local conditions, local ecological connectivity, and most significantly still-natural hydrology of the Hahamongna above Devil's Gate Dam.” |
| Laura Garrett | “The hard truth is that if they pursue this project as outlined now, the residents and schoolchildren who live and attend school near Hahamongna WILL face increased rates of heart disease, lung disease, and miscarriage. This is not a remote possibility but a fact.” |
| Tim Brick | “Emissions from Model Year 2010 Trucks, however, will still have significant air pollution impacts, given the sheer number of trucks (up to 425 per day), steep grade, traffic congestion, long idling times, and proximity to residential neighborhoods and schools. Furthermore, this standard does not apply to other mining and excavation equipment, which is also diesel-powered and likely to be even older equipment. As a responsible public agency, the County should use only clean air vehicles.” |
| Morey Wolfson | “I recommend that the District heed the advice of the overwhelming number of impacted citizens, respect endangered species, and carefully consider views articulated by the City of Pasadena. If the District aligns with community sentiment, the project will be conducted in a far more environmentally sensitive way, while protecting downstream properties from flooding.” |
| Joan Probst | “The County has promised to provide a draft restoration plan, but none has been forthcoming. I ask that this be produced so the public can read it.” |
| Susan Hoskins | “The environmental impact report provided by the county should provide a longer monitoring period and well-defined performance standards. The current short-sighted version for 5-year monitoring of habitat mitigation, or until undefined performance standards are met, is too short a period of time for what it would take for habitats destroyed to re-establish.” |
| Suzy Beal | “The County has promised to provide a draft restoration plan, but none has been forthcoming. I ask that this be produced so the public can read it.” |
| Barbara Eisenstein | “The County has promised to provide a draft restoration plan, but none has been forthcoming. I ask that this be produced so the public can read it.” |
| Kate Vincent and Donald Crockett | “We believe that the slower, scaled back solution proposed by Pasadena would be far better in terms of it's effectiveness, minimized disruption, destruction of the surrounds and native flora/fauna and negative impact on a large community who makes use of the area for a variety of different activities.” |
