DTSC Responds to ENU February letter

Here is DTSC's response DTSC to ENU response to Feb letter  to our comment letter filed in February included in the ENU Blog Post Feb 16 2015.  The timing is a little confusing as we received it just hours after we sent our most recent April 22, 2015 letter.  We hope in the future, DTSC can let us know if and when they will respond to issues so we can have more seamless coordination.
At any rate, based on this response, it appears some of our comments and concerns were not well understood  and some of the responses are disappointing.
We are especially frustrated that the September, 2014 promise to take additional action if the contamination went south of Via Rancho is, now, not being pursued.  We will have more to say in the future about this.
And, just to reiterate, ENU did not make up the claim that sampling was not allowed to two wells on the Oak Creek site, we merely quoted the PRP Group's report that states '...property owners did not grant access..' (p. 6) and the results Table 5 which lists (No Access) as the status for the three wells on the Oak Creek site.  DTSC's letter seems to miss one of our points that there is a regular plan for assessing the contamination and two of these wells were part of it and should have been sampled in October! Even if it is worked out for the April sampling, the data set is compromised.  This seems particularly important given all the comments about the 'pulsing' of the contamination elsewhere in DTSC's response.

We will have more comments once our most recent letter and questions have been responded to but we wanted to be sure anyone interested had a chance to see this letter.

Please Save Snakes--call Tom's Snakes and Rattlesnake Rescue 619-933-1213

This time of year snakes and reptiles are coming out of hibernation.  If you see a snake you don't want around, we found a great service for any one who may need it.  Also, please find information below on how to tell the difference between rattlesnakes and totally harmless Gopher and King snakes.

Please keep this number by your phone.

Tom’s Snakes and Rattlesnake Rescue  (619) 933-1213

Tom is a reptile expert and operates a Rattlesnake and Reptile Rescue.  You can call him any time 24/7 and he will come and remove/rescue your snake or reptile.

He charges $50 and can come quickly in most cases.  He will safely remove the snake instead of killing it.

Snakes and reptiles play a VERY important role in the natural world, not to mention how much they love to eat rodents!!!!!  Please call Tom if you have a snake or reptile you don’t want in your yard.    

Here is what the UCSB says about Rattlesnakes 

The rattlesnake's role as an important link in the food web far outweighs its potential danger to our well being. In fact, rodent-borne diseases are probably controlled to a great extent by rattlesnakes and other predators. Offer them respect, observe them from a safe distance, and then leave them to perform their valuable ecological function.   Most rattlesnakes have relatively weak venoms when compared to the world's true vipers and cobras…

Rattlesnakes will make every effort to avoid contact with people. Humans are far more dangerous to this secretive animal than it is to us. Many bites are the result of someone trying to capture, kill, or handle the snake, and a good number of bites occur to snake keepers, both private and professional. The bite is a defensive reaction and should not be considered an act of aggression. The rattlesnake's rattle offers the snake a means of communication, designed to warn larger animals of their position.

http://sedgwick.nrs.ucsb.edu/sites/sedgwick.nrs.ucsb.edu/files/pdfs/Rattlesnake-Information-Page.pdf 

Gopher Snakes and King Snakes- Learn the Difference

Just like a Mocking Bird, it is a sin to kill a gopher or King snake.  They are BIG TIME rodent eaters.  Here is some info on how to tell the difference.

Also, learn what a King Snake looks like….they are your friend too and they eat Rattlesnakes!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_kingsnake

 Gopher Snake info 

If you have either a Gopher Snake or King Snake roll out the welcome mat and consider yourselves lucky.

One snake wrangler mentioned that the main way people get bit by rattlesnakes is they start whacking at them with a shovel.  

Just Call TOM'S SNAKES and stay safe!!!

ENU Earth Day Update: Chatham, Stormwater, and Butterflies

We hope that everyone today can stop and take a moment to appreciate our beautiful planet and all the support the Earth offers to us that makes our lives possible.  It is a good day to step outside and be grateful for the clean air and water available to us and see that it is a precious and finite resources.

For Escondido Neighbors, our environmental protection issues continue.   Here are a couple updates:

1.  Update on Chatham Waste Site

On April 15, we presented an update to the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Today we filed this letter  ENU to DTSC April 22 2015.  We have asked several questions of the regulators and hope to hear from them soon.

Many of you have seen the sampling trucks back in the neighborhood conducting the April sampling event for Chatham.   We will be interested to see if wells deJong 2 and 34-E4 are sampled in this round or not.  (For the regular October, 2014 event, the consultants reported that "property owners did not grant access to the Group for groundwater sampling in October 2014") Although the data set is already compromised, we will hope these wells will be tested per the plan.

2.  Update on City of Escondido stormwater violations.
The city staff has responded to the Notice of Violation issued by the Regional Board.  You can read the response here  Escondido Response to MS4 NOV, April 13 2015.  We will have comments on this in the future.

For those of you interested in the stormwater permit, there will be some  Stormwater Permit Public Workshops where the Regional Board will be seeking input.  Please participate if you are interested.

3.  Save the Monarch for Earth Day
Something we all can do in Escondido is make our yards Butterfly Friendly.
Learn about Monarch Butterfly and what can be done to help save this species.
USFWS Monarch information  and the Monarch Watch

We can all do something to help preserve and protect our precious world!

Join Escondido Neighbors United in remembering --Every Day is Earth Day!

Due Today! DTSC Community Survey on Oak Creek cleanup and remediation plan

Please submit a survey to DTSC  today about your thoughts on Oak Creek cleanup plan!!! 

 

Here is a link to the copy if you lost yours or didn’t get one.DTSC Survey or 

https://www.escondido.org/Data/Sites/1/media/PDFs/CMNews/DTSC_Community_Assessment_Questionaire.pdf

 

Many of us have asked for removal of those home sites (estimate sites 1-6) located above the Chatham on-site plumes or, at the very least, require soil vapor barriers under the homes as a protective measure.  

We have also asked for an additional mitigation measure to be added to notify neighbors if there is any exceedance or upset in the air monitoring from construction or cleanup.

Last, the developers should be required to state the cleanup strategy they are planning to use.  There are several options in the FEIR and they have very different impacts which were not adequately analyzed.

Due today.  Will only take a minute.