Dust Travels Fast!

A Ridgewood Ranch resident took these pictures in the Spring of 2019. 
A garden is in the middle ground. 
An unannounced blast occurred at Harris Quarry and in seven minutes dust particulates were raining on the photographer. The distance is about 
a mile.

UPDATE!  Important Legal VICTORIES have been achieved!

With valuable public support, after 14 years of determined opposition, Keep the Code has won BOTH the CEQA* and the Vested Rights** legal challenges in both the Superior Court and in the Court of Appeals

*CEQA – California Environmental Quality Act – Lawsuit

 Through the legal system, Keep the Code requested that the county rescind its decisions to approve the Harris Quarry Expansion Project Environmental Impact Report.  The court granted the petition and directed the county to set aside its decisions and the related use permit approvals and the reclamation plan, and to undertake further review and reconsider its decisions on several of the project alternatives. 

         In 2018, The Court of Appeals upheld this decision.

**Harris Quarry Vested Rights Claim Overturned

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Richard Henderson has issued a ruling to set aside the County’s approval of a vested right to mine Harris Quarry. The court found that the County did not have enough evidence before it to approve a vested right to operate the Harris Quarry, and that there was no evidence that the Church of the Golden Rule incurred substantial liabilities, like purchasing mining equipment, which is necessary for establishing a vested right. The court also observed that “the historical pattern does not indicate the existence of any commercial quarrying and aggregate activities occurring at the Harris Quarry from 1936 to 1976” and “the record is absolutely devoid of any evidence that the Church operated the quarry as a commercial venture or expended any money in connection with quarrying activities and/or rock crushing and screening.”  In particular, the court focused on the fact that the aerial photos presented to the court simply did not show an expansion of the quarry’s footprint for decades.   

The Court of Appeals upheld this decision in the fall of 2018.

BUT THE PROJECT STILL LOOMS

The Harris Quarry Expansion Project

is a proposed asphalt manufacturing plant to be placed on rangeland located at the top of Ridgewood Grade, just south of Willits, CA.

Here's how it will affect YOU.

This project will mean many trucks per hour will be merging  on and off Highway 101 during rush hour morning traffic at peak asphalt production times  at an already challenging intersection on a mountaintop.  Slow moving, heavily loaded asphalt trucks  and oil tankers will be crossing Highway 101 and merging with 65-70 mile-per–hour highway traffic. This will create dangerous driving conditions for everyone.

The quarry wants increased production of rock quarried to support the asphalt production.  The current rangeland zoning would need to be changed to industrial on 18 acres at the entryway to the Ridgewood Subdivision.  And change the whole county zoning code to allow this project to happen, in opposition with the directive of the Mendocino County Plan.

Property values will fall in the surrounding areas, as pollution and fire danger increases.

Because of the weather patterns of the area, the pollutants from this plant will disburse by using the prevailing winds to blow particulate,  heavy metal and carcinogenic pollutants to watersheds, over Ridgewood Ranch to Redwood Valley, Potter Valley and Ukiah and to Willits, depending on which way the winds blow on any given day.

Is the location of this project REALLY in the best interest of the people of Mendocino County?