Red Dots Indicate Where DEIR's Noise Measurements Were Taken. Ie LT-2
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[Red dots indicate where DEIR's noise measurements were taken. i.e. LT-2: Long-term measurements] MAP OF QUARRY PROJECT'S NOISE IMPACTS TO SKYLINE WILDERNESS PARK You Commissioners have noise regulations and State environmental laws as the means to achieve such protection. But those regulations will work only if they are properly applied to this Syar Napa Quarry expansion project. So far however, Syar's consultants and EIR preparers have misled the Planning Department, the public and you Commissioners by concluding Syar's noise impacts to the Skyline Wilderness Park will be less-than-significant if mitigated as they propose. DL&A Noise Comment Letter #2 9-1-15 Syar Napa Quarry Expansion Project EIR - 2 - They have failed to accurately analyze the most severe noise impacts to this Park. Those most severe impacts will be the temporary or periodic increases in noise exposure from unshielded heavy equipment operations as the quarry is expanded on its north and east sides. There may also be significant sleep-disturbance impacts to campground users in tents or RVs from Syar's operations, either during the quarry's occasional 24-hour night and day operations or its early morning operations that may begin at 6:00 a.m. While the DEIR does not evaluate these significant impacts of large temporary increases in noise or sleep-disturbance, there is nonetheless strong evidence in the DEIR that points to such impacts. The DEIR's data is there for all to read, but its significance has been overlooked by County planners who have reviewed the DEIR. The Planning Department has not objected to the DEIR's unsupported conclusions of a less-than-significant noise impact to this campground. The DEIR has not proved these noise impacts will be less-than-significant, nor can County planning officials do that with what is known so far. The DEIR's data and documentation demonstrates that Syar's noise levels at times will substantially exceed permissible noise standards. The EIR consultants just didn't analyze that data or report on these serious noise impacts to the Park. If a camper is awakened too early on a weekday by loud nearby quarry operations, the quality of his or her day may be ruined by lack of sufficient sleep. If recreationalists using the Skyline Wilderness Park's trails or other amenities are exposed to noise levels that greatly exceed what they currently are, they too will have impacts to their quality of life at least when visiting this Park. This Skyline Wilderness Park is the most significant locally provided regional park in the county. This is what CEQA is meant to prevent: undisclosed harm to this rural environment caused by negligent project proponents and misinformed government agencies. DL&A Noise Comment Letter #2 9-1-15 Syar Napa Quarry Expansion Project EIR - 3 - These Comments Address Full Project Described in DEIR, Not Just Modified Project These comments address the Syar Napa Quarry Expansion Project as originally laid out in the DEIR's Project Description. An accurate, stable and finite project description is an essential, indispensable requirement for an informative and legally adequate EIR.1 Subsequent proposed project modifications disclosed belatedly in the Master Response in 2015 may prove to be beneficial, but to the extent that they alter the Project's description, the DEIR must be revised to give the public its chance to review what is newly proposed. If modification is meant as a quick shortcut to fill obvious potholes in the DEIR's inadequate analyses, that won't work. Recirculation is required. The County is obligated to provide in a DEIR a Project Description the public can rely upon, as well as all proposed project alternatives, for full public review. It cannot rely upon a DEIR that is altered after comments have been received on the previously identified project. An unstable project description interferes with informed public review. In particular regarding noise impacts, the DEIR's analysis and discussion has not been revised to include a new noise report to reflect the modified project. If the County were to approve the EIR as written but approve the smaller project with the new modifications, the EIR would still include and endorse the originally described, larger 2,000,000 ton/year project and its greater impacts. Syar could at a later time apply for additional expansion up to what the DEIR in 2013 proposed, and could rely upon the approved EIR without having to revise and recirculate it. Thus any belated attempt to modify the Project without revising and recirculating the DEIR deceives the public about the scope of the EIR's purview and adequacy. CEQA does not allow an applicant to move forward with approval of a defective EIR even if the agency and applicant somehow claim to have improved its project after much public criticism of the EIR's flaws. While CEQA compels an interactive process of assessment of environmental impacts and responsive project modification, that process must be open to the public. It must be premised on a full and meaningful disclosure of the scope, purpose and effect of a consistently described project. The County's effort to improve the project is desirable, but the County also must fully review the newly conceived modifications. This DEIR however still concludes the original 2,000,000 ton/year Project's noise impacts with proposed mitigations will be less-than- significant. So this comment letter addresses the full range of noise impacts from those Project operations that the EIR describes and includes. Impact 4.11-? This is an impact the DEIR fails to even consider: Noise generated by mining activities on ridgelines in expansion areas will result in temporary and periodic noise levels that will be very much louder at campsites in Skyline Wilderness Park and will create significant noise impacts. As an example of one serious flaw, CEQA requires this Project's DEIR to have evaluated the significance of a noise impact if it would result in "a substantial temporary or periodic increase 1 See County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles (1977) 71 CA3d 185, 193. DL&A Noise Comment Letter #2 9-1-15 Syar Napa Quarry Expansion Project EIR - 4 - in ambient noise levels in the project vicinity above levels existing without the project." 2 Yet the DEIR never evaluated how much of an increase in noise levels this quarry's expansion Project would cause anywhere in the Skyline Wilderness Park or at its campground. Not only does the public not know in quantifiable numbers how much of a noise increase will occur, reading the EIR does not disclose if that noise level increase to Park users will be significant or less-than-significant. That evaluation and conclusion is entirely missing from the EIR. It is inexplicable for the DEIR to have correctly initially identified this "significance criteria" as being a necessary test, but then to have dropped the ball and to have wholly ignored that question. That question cannot be answered without someone first measuring how quiet the most noise- sensitive areas of the Skyline Wilderness Park currently are. Only two measurement locations were studied for the DEIR that are pertinent to this Park: locations LT-2 and LT-4 as shown on the DEIR's Figure 4.11-1 (page 4.11-27) and on this map above on page 2. But neither LT-2 nor LT-4 are locations with the quietest ambient noise levels. Other more noise sensitive locations within the Park have lower ambient noise levels, but the DEIR has not studied those locations within the Park where "baseline" ambient acoustical conditions should have been documented. The locations for long-term (6-day) measurements for use in the DEIR concerning the Skyline Wilderness Park were only obtained at these two sites: LT-2 is located at the northeast property line of the quarry near the Skyline Trail where quarry noise is generated much closer and is therefore louder than on other more distant trails. For purposes of baseline ambient sound levels, the DEIR should contain measurements of more quiet trails that will be nonetheless affected by Syar's expanded noisy activities. LT-4 is located near the horse arena by Penny Lane where the DEIR admits the "predominant source of noise was local traffic along Imola Avenue." Noise levels at the southern most RV campsites and tent sites that are farther away from Imola Avenue would be likely significantly quieter. The southern most tent sites are more than twice as far from Imola Avenue as the LT-4 location; their exposure to Imola Avenue's traffic noise would therefore be at least 3 to 4 dB quieter than the DEIR presents.3 That discrepancy invalidates the DEIR's conclusions about LT-4 measurements applying to the more sensitive campground sites. Accordingly, measurements at locations LT-2 and LT-4 are inadequate for disclosing the true baseline noise level conditions for the quietest-but-highly relevant sections of Skyline Wilderness Park or the Skyline Trail. There were no noise level measurements presented in the DEIR from elsewhere along the Skyline Trail or at the southerly campsites. (See map above.) 2 For source of this requirement, please see CEQA Guidelines, Appendix G, and also review the brief mention of this CEQA requirement within the DEIR, p. 4.11-12, even if not analyzed elsewhere in the DEIR. 3 Traffic noise is recognized by the State of California and acoustical professionals to diminish by between 3.0 to 4.5 dB for each doubling of distance ("DD") from a road. If the ground surface between the source and the receiver of such traffic noise is "soft" meaning it is covered with soft dirt, grass or scattered bushes and trees -- vegetation like in Skyline Wilderness Park, then more noise is absorbed, resulting in up to 4.5 dB of noise reduction.