In this issue:

• Quarry and logging
• Santa Cruz Biotech, website and 2040 Task Force
• Highlights: tire burning, quarry noise, executive board changes



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   The RMC Lonestar limestone quarry is a huge crater hidden in the hills east of Bonny Doon Road and south of Smith Grade. Jarring explosions boom off its deep, terraced walls, raising dust clouds like Sahara sandstorms. Huge trucks crawl toylike up its edges to a rock crusher that grinds limestone boulders into chunks and drops them onto a belt that conveys them to the big cement plant at Davenport.
    For decades the quarry's impact has mainly been on its immediate Smith Grade neighbors. Now, they are gone, bought out by the giant European-based conglomerate that owns this lucrative complex, their properties added to RMC's vast Bonny Doon holdings (see next page).
    Why? First, as RMC seeks permission to expand the quarry (see map next page) they won't be around to complain, and second, because some time in the next 20 or so years RMC will run out of limestone again, and might like to expand up to Smith Grade and even across it.
    Unlikely? Consider the many millions of dollars the cement plant generates, and RMC's huge investment in it. They would happily buy out the remaining Smith Grade property owners, and relocate the road. After all, they moved a long stretch of Bonny Doon Road westward about 30 years ago. A revision of the county General Plan would be required before this could happen.
    As part of their expansion application RMC has asked the county for permission to drill test holes on its new Smith Grade lands, as well as on parcels it already owned spanning Smith Grade along Reggiardo Creek. RMC says it wants to drill to determine the way water moves underground in that area and supplies the city of Santa Cruz's water source at Liddell Spring. The city is justifiably concerned that the new quarry area will impact its supply, which is already having problems, possibly because of the present quarry operations, although RMC disputes this.
    As it drills the test holes RMC will learn a lot about where more limestone deposits may lie for future mining. A risk is that the drilling could poke holes in the aquifer depended on by RMC's neighbors along Mill Creek (the winery/Martin Road/Quail Drive area) and Smith Grade, and their wells could dry up.
    If RMC receives permission from the county to expand the quarry, it will begin to have a much more pronounced impact on Bonny Doon, especially on lower Pine Flat, upper Bonny Doon Road, Martin Road, Quail Drive, and western Smith Grade.
    Only an arc of four hills (see map), redwoods, madrones and oaks protect that area of Bonny Doon now. With the expansion, RMC wants to carve out part of one of the hills, as over the next 20 or so years it strips up to 200 feet of overlying soil and rock away to expose the limestone. Some protection is provided in a required 1,000 foot buffer zone from its property line, but without the trees and hills, that is meaningless.
    The Planning Department has asked RMC to address several concerns before it will process the expansion application. Nothing is likely to happen before the fall. Your RBDA board is closely following developments. This is one of the most serious long-term threats to the ambiance of Bonny Doon, and we plan to hold a public forum on it, in September or November, depending on events. There are many other complex issues involved here, including expansion of hours of operation, the county's ability to effectively hold RMC to its permit requirements, possible affects on the city's water supply, and protection of the endangered red-legged frog.
    RMC can be a formidable opponent if it wants to throw its money around. In future Highlanders we will be focusing strongly on this issue as it unfolds.
 

The RMC Lonestar Quarry and adjoining properties
 
 

RMC Lonestar issued a rebuttal letter, which is reprinted below.

Tough Logging Rules Go to State

    In a flutter of political manipulations, county Supervisors sent on to the state Board of Forestry a pallet of recommendations for tough new county logging rules. If the state board doesn't approve the rules, the county will fall back on even tougher regulations it passed in the early '80s but never enforced because state law superseded them. A recent court decision reinstated the county's jurisdiction in deciding where logging can take place.
    The recommendations are largely the result of a compromise between Big Creek Lumber and the Citizens for Responsible Forest Management, brokered by Supervisor Jeff Almquist, who was the swing vote on the tougher rules. Other loggers, mostly representing out-of-county operators, are livid and threatening to sue if the new rules are adopted. Also upset are landowners in Rural Residential and Rural Agricultural (RR and RA) zones who are accustomed (or planned) to harvest trees.
    The majority of the RBDA Executive Board believes the RR/RA ban is for the greater good and protects the rights and property values of the great majority of home/landowners, while one board member claims the ban is unconstitutional. The courts will probably decide the issue. The temporary ban on helicopter logging outside TPZ zones ends August 1, opening a window for loggers until the county's new rules go into effect. Supervisors Belgard and Symons blocked the ban's extension.

Horse Mansion or Goat Ghetto?

    Are the Stephensons, John and Brenda, owners of Santa Cruz Biotechnology, planning to build two 4,000 square-foot barns for 6 to 10 horses, or more crowded goat sheds for hundreds of additional goats?
Documents submitted to the state Water Quality Control Board say the new barns could someday house goats, while plans filed with the county show one will be used for hay and tack and the other as a stable - the largest per horse he's ever seen or heard of, says Kim Tschantz of the Planning Department.
    On July 10 at 1:30 p.m.. (after The Highlander goes to press) a Zoning Administrator hearing on the application was scheduled.
    We'd sure like to see what Santa Cruz Bio's master plan looks like (it's now some two years since the huge antibody facility went in on Back Ranch Road). The plan is required by the county's new ordinance regulating such "pharms." But we'll have to wait a little longer: inexplicably, on June 2, the Board of Supervisors extended by 30 days (from 60 to 90) the time SCB has to file it.
    Meanwhile, the battle over the facility, where nearly 1,800 goats are kept in feedlot-like conditions, has claimed a casualty: Jody Cramer, SPCA director, has lost her job. Was part of the reason her involvement with SCB? Jody helped blunt criticism of the goats' treatment at the facility during the negotiations over the new ordinance, supposedly by arranging Santa Cruz Bio's agreement to include goat welfare rules into the law. But somehow that language got cut out. And now, so has Jody.

This wasn't in the Highlander, but here's a bit of an update:

"At the hearing on July 10, the County Zoning Administrator continued the application for SCB's new barns and will recommend that the matter go directly to the Planning Commission. His decision was partly based on new information received after the public comment period, which shows that their State permit to divert water from Laguna Creek restricts them from using the water for facilities and irrigation on the upper terrace. Additionally, State Fish and Game may challenge the diversion right in the interest of preserving stream flow for fish habitat."
 

2040 Task Force

Are You Interested in Bonny Doon's Future?

    As we've talked about in The Highlander, the RBDA Executive Board has set up the Bonny Doon 2040 Task Force to identify the forces in the coming century that will harm Bonny Doon's rural and natural character, and to create a proactive plan to forestall them.
    This will be a lot of work, and we need more people to help, with their time, skills and donations to cover such expenses as maps and reports from Santa Cruz County government databases.
    The RBDA considers the 2040 task force to be one of the most important ways we can ensure the continued ambiance of our mountain community. If you can help, contact Ted Benhari, RBDA chairperson, via mail, e-mail or phone (see back page).
    The task force meets the fourth Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Bonny Doon School Library (unless vacation schedules require postponement, as happened in June). The task force is studying projected population growth, water use and availability, road capacities and traffic projections, zoning, building codes and enforcement, possible effects of the sudden expansion in state parks and other open land, county land use policies, demographic, political and economic forces, and more.
 

Tire Burning Bills Go Flat

    Opposition by environmental groups seems to have detoured bills aimed at making it a lot easier for California cement plants to burn waste tires, which could have saved them as much as 40% of their fuel costs. The bills were rolling through the legislature until organized resistance let the air out. California law specifies recycling as the preferred disposal method for tires.
    The bills would have changed the language of earlier laws to regard burning for fuel as "recycling" by calling it "energy recovery." George Orwell would have loved it!
    Although the bills have been shelved for now, they could be revived. Drop a line to Assemblyman Fred Keeley or State Sen. Bruce McPherson to let them know that you expect them to register their opposition if they roll around again.

Mystery Sound Source Revealed

    The hum that pervades the hills of Pine Flat Road, and parts of Smith Grade, originates from the giant rock crushers at RMC Lonestar's Davenport cement plant, according to several knowledgeable sources. The hum is heard all the time, especially at night. Some people have gotten used to it, but it drives others crazy, like chalk screeching on a blackboard. If it bothers you call and complain to cement plant manager Satish Sheth at 429-7200.

Executive Board Change

    Recording Secretary Clarence Dunnrowicz has resigned from the RBDA Executive Board, We will miss Clarence's imaginative analysis of Bonny Doon issues, and are happy that he is remaining on the Board's 2040 Task Force. The board has designated Val Haley, botanist and docent coordinator of Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve, to replace Clarence as Recording Secretary. Under RBDA Bylaws, an election for the open seat will take place at the next general meeting, in September.