New Signs & Bumper Stickers Now Available!

New Save Shollenberger signs and bumper stickers will be available for pick up this Saturday (10/31) from 10am-2pm at our Headquarters. The first 50 bumper stickers and 20 signs are FREE!

322 Western Ave.
Petaluma, CA

The Dutra proposal is likely to return to the Board of Supervisors in December, so it is vital that we begin to once again grow community awareness and return this issue to the forefront of Sonoma County consciousness. The large majority of Petaluma residents are against this Asphalt plant, as well as the entire Petaluma City Council and 5 other Sonoma County cities…but it could come down to the vote of one individual on the Board of Supervisors.

Don’t let this decision be made for us. Stand up and speak your mind. Please stop by on Saturday and help us spread the word.

Trick or Treat!

Marin Supervisors approve quarry's environmental impact report

Share your opinion! Click here to participate in the poll asking whether this quarry is a threat to public health.

Medical experts disagreed over the health effects of continued mining at the San Rafael Rock Quarry during a key public hearing on the quarry Tuesday. More than 300 people attended the three-hour hearing at the Civic Center, where county supervisors voted unanimously to certify as adequate and complete an environmental impact report submitted by the Dutra Group to continue operations at the quarry for least another 17 years.

The Dutra Group wants to dig the pit twice as deep as the 200 feet below sea level allowed by a 1982 permit, and continue operations for another 17 years with 250 truck trips daily.

Read the article here

TRUCKS OR DUCKS?? IT'S UP TO US!

New Printable Petition

We need your help to collect names & emails for Sonoma County residents opposed to the Dutra Asphalt Plant at Haystack Landing. Please collect contact information for folks in your community and forward the lists to us at our office:

Friends of Shollenberger Park
322 Western Ave
Petaluma, CA 94952

Or scan and email to us at SaveShollenberger at gmail.com

We are hearing that the new Dutra proposal will go in front of the County Supervisors in early December...so time is of the essence! Thanks!!

Tolay Regional Park Opening Ceremony this Saturday

Sonoma County Regional Parks is pleased to announce the kickoff of expanded public access at Tolay Lake Regional Park. To mark the expanded access, Regional Parks is also planning a celebration on Saturday, October 10 at 10:00 am to thank the community members who helped in developing the access plan and acknowledge the acquisition partners and park neighbors. Guest speakers include 2nd District County Supervisor Mike Kerns and Regional Parks Director Mary Burns.

Click here for directions to Tolay Lake Regional Park (PDF)

Click here to RSVP to attend on Facebook

Parking Free to those attending the Ceremonies. Be there by 9:30 to get a good position. We need volunteers to hold up our BIG sign and give Supervisor MIKE KERNS and all attendees our message: NO ASPHALT PLANT AT HAYSTACK LANDING - SAVE OUR PARK.

Please e-mail us if you can commit to coming to Tolay on SAT morning to assist us. Please be able to arrive by 9:30 am.

Dutra's Track Record - History in Miami, Florida

In 1994 Dutra Construction Co. began contracted work with the Port of Miami, dredging a section of the shipping channel in Biscayne Bay, a “shallow subtropical lagoon with diverse habitat including mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs. Manatees, crocodiles, sea turtles, and many important fish species also share the immediate marine environment with the port.”1 This “rich marine habitat”1 was severely damaged by Dutra’s illegal dredging and destruction of “3.5 acres of seagrass outside of the permitted dredging area.”2 “in violation of county, state, and federal laws.”3 “This is the largest unauthorized sea-grass-destruction case ever investigated by DERM [Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management],” declared biologist Craig Grossenbacher, chief of DERM's coastal resources section. “At the very least there was gross negligence.”3 Grossenbacher also stated that “We now know this illegal dredging occurred between 1995 and 1997.”3 “To make matters worse, the excavation, funded by taxpayers, led to illegal dumping of the coral rock and dredge materials.”2 In 1997 Dutra stopped work and filed for bankruptcy.3

“Later that year Lunetta [the Port of Miami Director] resigned amid a federal investigation charging him and two businessmen at the port with embezzlement, fraud, and theft of funds. But before he left, Lunetta approved $9.9 million in payments to Dutra for work it never completed.”3 “Dutra workers returned to the channel in January of [1999] after the county made a deal with Safeco, a company that had insured the dredging project. Safeco agreed to finance a resumption of the dredging and to reimburse the port for the $9.9 million Dutra had overbilled.”3

It was in February of 1999 that DERM discovered the illegal dredging in Biscayne Bay and the “eighteen mysterious piles of coral rock on the ocean bottom”3 illegally dumped outside the federally authorized offshore disposal site. “In April 1999 DERM issued violation notices to Dutra chairman Bill Dutra, port director Charles Towsley, and Luis Ajamil of Bermello Ajamil and Partners (B&A),”3 the engineers of record. In mid-1999 Dutra “pulled out of the job, saying its arsenal could not compete with the resilience of coral rock,”3 despite the fact that they had previously “removed several football fields worth of seagrass and coral rock”1 illegally.

The illegal dredging led to a lawsuit: Miami-Dade County v. Safeco Insurance Company, Bill Dutra, Harry K. Stewart and George W. Gilfillan which alleged civil fraud and breach of contract.5 In this case, ‘No.: 98-17437 CA 20 United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida”5, tried in the Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the County sought $40 million in damages and settled for $22.5 million.6

The damage to Biscayne Bay cannot be directly mitigated because “the water was 2 to 5 feet deep where the sea grass was destroyed, now the area is 30 feet deep - unsuitable for sea grass.” 4 Therefore, the settlement money will be used for other environmental projects, including mitigating “62.5 acres with red mangroves within the Oleta River State Park, North Miami.”2

References & Article Links:

1: Harboring Pollution. The dirty truth about US Ports, NRDC and Coalition for Clean Air, March 2004 (PDF)

2: Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners Agenda Notes March 4, 2008 (PDF)

3: “A Hole So Foul” By Kirk Nielsen, Miami New Times, Sept. 7, 2000

4: Miami Group, Sierra Club Conservation Archives: 2000 “Port of Miami Violations” Editorial by Nancy Lee

5: Website of AFC Group, Litigation and Valuation Advisory Services

6: Miami-Dade settles longstanding law suit over botched dredging project, Dredging News Online - January 30, 2006

A Chronology of Dutra Construction Co., Inc. in the Port of Miami, Florida

Date
1994
Dutra dredging begins in the channel where DERM had approved deepening a section of the shipping channel in Biscayne Bay in the Port of Miami.

1995-97
Dutra “unlawfully scooped out several football fields' worth of seagrass and several tons of the bay's coral-rock floor below the seagrass.”

Jan. 1997
Dutra stops work and files for bankruptcy.

Jan. 1999
Dutra returns to work in the channel after the County made a deal with Safeco, the insurance company for Dutra; Safeco agreed to finance the resumption of work and to reimburse the port for the $9.9 million Dutra had overbilled.

Feb.1999
Biologist Craig Grossenbacher of Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) discovers illegal dredging in Biscayne Bay. DERM had approved deepening, not widening, a section of the shipping channel.
Illegal dumping is also discovered.

Apr. 1999
DERM issues violation notices to Dutra chairman Bill Dutra, port director Charles Towsley, and Luis Ajamil of Bermello Ajamil and Partners (B&A).

mid-1999
Dutra stops work.
Miami-Dade County v. Safeco Insurance Company, Bill Dutra, Harry K. Stewart and George W. Gilfillan. Action: Civil fraud, Breach of contract. Case No.: 98-17437 CA 20 United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The County sought $40 million in damages.

Jan. 2006
Settlement reached for $22.5 million between the County and Safeco

Mar. 2008
Contract awarded to another company to “mitigate 62.5 acres with red mangroves within the Oleta River State Park” in North Miami, using a portion of the Safeco settlement.
“This project was necessitated by damage caused by the County’s dredging company, Dutra Construction Co., Inc., which impacted 3.5 acres of seagrass outside of the permitted dredging area.”