Gravel Mine Stopped In Its Trucks

Diamond Rock Mine plan OK’d by Santa Barbara planners, with caveat that trucks must avoid Ojai portion of 33

By Nao Braverman
In a partial victory for critics of truck traffic last week, the new Diamond Rock Mine has been prohibited from sending gravel trucks through Ojai.
The original proposal for Diamond Rock Mine, a sand and gravel mining facility in Cuyama Valley, was the catalyst that motivated local citizens and community leaders to form the Stop the Trucks Coalition. Already fed up with existing truck traffic, members of the coalition were afraid that additional trucks from the new Diamond Rock mine in Santa Barbara County would ruin Ojai’s air quality, tourist-based economy, road safety and quality of life.
The Diamond Rock Mine proposal was unanimously approved by the Santa Barbara Planning Commission last week, however, with the condition that truck traffic to and from the mine could not traverse the portion of Highway 33 that goes through Ojai and the Los Padres National Forest. The condition also specifies that the trucks cannot be re-routed onto other roads, which decreases their overall mining operations by 20 percent, according to coalition officials.
Although it received approval from commissioners, the mine still needs to be granted permits from several state and federal agencies.
“We’re pleased that the county and the applicant finally recognized what we’ve been saying all along — that scenic Highway 33 is not suitable as an industrial trucking route,” said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, a watchdog organization for the forest, and an active member of the Stop the Trucks Coalition.
The Diamond Rock Mine’s original application proposed 69 daily round-trip deliveries passing through Ojai during peak operation days, and 46 trips on an average day, on top of existing truck traffic from other mine operations in the area.
But a year ago Santa Barbara County planners recommended a ban on truck traffic down Highway 33 through the Ojai Valley from the mine, having encountered opposition from a number of Ojai residents. In an interview last year, Santa Barbara County Planning Director John Baker said that he had reached an agreement with the Troesh family, which owns the mine, not to send trucks through Ojai. Cherisse Troesh, project manager for the Diamond Rock Mine said that the mine’s management decided not to send truck trips through Ojai because of opposition from community members.
“We came to that decision to address the community’s concerns,” she said.
Though members of Stop the Trucks are pleased with the condition, they are concerned that it is not necessarily permanent, said coalition member Howard Smith. As a condition of the mine’s Conditional Use Permit, the ban can always be lifted in the future. If it is appealed, officials will turn to the project’s Environmental Impact Report, which does not adequately address Ojai and Highway 33, said Smith. The original EIR says that the proposed truck trips would have essentially no impact on Ojai, which is not true, said Smith.
“We believe that the Environmental Impact Report fails to adequately analyze Highway 33 to determine its long-term safety and efficacy for widespread industrial utilization,” said Michael Shapiro, chair of the Stop the Trucks Coalition. “Unless the current EIR establishes a permanent ban on such utilization — with adequate redress if such a ban is ever lifted — the coalition will remain proactive in opposing any such utilization, at any time in the future.”
Troesh stated that the company had no plans to lift the ban in the future.
The temporary ban is one step in the right direction, according to coalition members. Other mines on the Cuyama River, the Ozena Valley Ranch’s sand and gravel mine and the GPS River Rock Products mine continue to send trucks through Ojai, and are looking to get approvals for expansions this summer.
“At least for the time being, this ban gives us partial relief from our legitimate, ongoing concerns that turning scenic Highway 33 and the town of Ojai into a industrialized heavy trucking transportation zone, would have significant and lasting impacts on both the air quality of the Ojai Valley, while also unnecessarily risking the lives, health, safety and welfare of thousands of folks who use this route,” said Shapiro.