Commission will reduce fee used to protect habitats

Irony: Halt to Eagle Mountain impacted enviro plans to buy critical habitat



Coachella Valley Multiple Species
Habitat Conservation Plan area

Written by Keith Matheny
mydesert.com

Coachella Valley -- A developer fee that supports a valleywide species habitat protection plan will be reduced.

The Coachella Valley Conservation Commission, which consists of representatives from the nine valley cities, Riverside County and local water agencies, plans to reduce the mitigation fee supporting the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.

The plan protects 240,000 acres of open space and 27 plant and animal species in and around the Coachella Valley, including the threatened desert tortoise, peninsular bighorn sheep and desert pupfish.

The planned fee reduction is $130 per acre for commercial or industrial development, to $5,600 from $5,730.

The fee will drop $30 per acre for developments of up to eight units in affected areas, to $1,254 from $1,284.

Tom Kirk, Coachella Valley Association of Governments executive director, said the fee reductions are prompted by a new “nexus study” required of governments to occasionally evaluate the appropriateness of fees charged for new development.

Declining property values due to the struggling economy did not have a large impact on the fee, Kirk said, because the properties often purchased for habitat protection are remote and less desirable for building, which tends to keep land values more flat.

The habitat protection program hit a potential snag in March, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturning a land exchange that in effect halted the Eagle Mountain Landfill near Joshua Tree National Park.

The multiple species plan was counting on $250 million in long-term funding from the landfill, Kirk said, and developers potentially faced a huge fee increase without it.

But CVAG officials worked with federal and state agencies, environmentalists, and the local building industry, eventually striking a deal to continue with plans to buy critical habitat lands most susceptible to development over the next 20 to 30 years, but to shift lesser priority land purchases out up to 40 years, Kirk said.

“It drove down the fee a little bit, which was a heck of a lot better than raising it a whole lot,” he said.

Riverside County Planning Department Deputy Director Greg Neal said county supervisors are having staff return with an amended plan for a county board vote.

Other member governments will similarly have to amend their ordinances, he said.

Though the multi-species plan was adopted in 2007, to date it has raised only about $2 million in development impact fees — far below projections — due to the down economy, Kirk said.

“One of the many ironies of the plan is, when we have wildlife interests knocking at our door saying, ‘Why don't you acquire more land?' we need more development to do it,” he said.

The program has relied on about $5 million in federal grant funds and $13 million in CVAG transportation mitigation fees to pay for acquisitions, property management and biological monitoring, Kirk said.

“At CVAG, we look at it much like a developer does,” he said. “We'd rather pay a fee to help build interchanges on the I-10 than deal with the uncertainty and high cost of dealing with endangered species on a case-by-case basis.”

What's best for Eagle Mountain?

Our Voice: County shouldn't pass up proposed landfill

A Desert Sun Point Counterpoint

The Desert Sun Editorial Board

The proposed Eagle Mountain landfill site is 60 miles east of Indio at the former Kaiser iron ore mine. The mining operation left a hole 4.5 miles wide and 1.5 miles long. (Courtesy photo)

The Desert Sun has long supported putting the nation's largest landfill in an abandoned iron ore mine in a remote area known as Eagle Mountain.

This issue has been debated for 20 years and some believed it was finally over when in November the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, upheld a lower court's rejection of the plan.

Proponents, however, will continue to press their case through the courts. We hope they succeed.

From 1948 to 1983, Kaiser Mining Corp. operated on 5,000 acres near Joshua Tree National Park. In 1989, six years after the mining operation ceased, Kaiser applied to the Bureau of Land Management for a land swap that would provide 2,846 acres of mostly flat desert land to become part of the California Desert Conservation Area.

The mining operation left a hole 4.5 miles wide and 1.5 miles long, a scar in the desert landscape.

Rick Daniels, now city manager of Desert Hot Springs, said Eagle Mountain would be the “most environmentally sound landfill ever.”

It was approved by Riverside County in 1992 and has the green light from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reviewed the potential impact on endangered species and three times issued a “no jeopardy” opinion.

Eagle Mountain would generate 1,300 jobs and an economic impact of $3 billion in its first 20 years of operation.

Without Eagle Mountain, 14,000 tons of Los Angeles area trash will go to Imperial County's Mesquite Landfill. It is literally an economic opportunity rolling right past us on railroad cars.

Judge Steven S. Trott was eloquent in his dissent: “What sane person would want to attempt to acquire property for a landfill? Our well-meaning environmental laws have unintentionally made such an endeavor a fool's errand.

“This case is yet another example of how daunting — if not impossible — such an adventure can be. Ulysses thought he encountered fearsome obstacles as he headed home to Ithaca on the Argo, but nothing that compares to the ‘due process' of unchecked environmental law. Not the Cyclops, not the Sirens, and not even Scylla and Charybdis can measure up to the obstacles Kaiser has faced in this endeavor.”

Keep up the fight, proponents.

Court nixes proposal for dump near Joshua Tree

Plan would have created ‘largest landfill in the U.S.'

Colin Atagi
The Desert Sun

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court's rejection of a plan — 20 years in the making — that sought to turn a former iron ore mine near Joshua Tree National Park into the “largest landfill in the United States,” according to the decision.

Tuesday's ruling was a setback for proponents of the controversial Eagle Mountain Landfill, who say it would bring much-needed jobs and revenue to the Coachella Valley and the surrounding region.

But landfill opponents called Tuesday's ruling a “landmark victory” for the animals who call the national park home and the more than 1.3 million people who visit the park every year.

The appellate court's 2-1 decision upheld a 2005 district court decision that overturned the land exchange needed for the 4,654-acre Eagle Mountain Landfill, which was proposed for a former iron ore mine near Joshua Tree National Park.

“Thank God this thing is over; it's been going on for more than 20 years,” said Eagle Mountain resident Donna Charpied, who lives two miles from the proposed site with her husband, Larry. “It's time for the government to stop with this nonsense.”

U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Timlin said in September 2005 the proposal was based on a flawed land swap between the Bureau of Land Management and developer Kaiser Ventures because the government undervalued the property.

Under the land deal, the government provided 3,481 acres near Joshua Tree to Kaiser.

In exchange, Kaiser offered the government 2,486 acres of private land plus $20,100.

Meanwhile, partner Mine Reclamation Corp. of Palm Desert agreed to sell its interest to Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County for $41 million.

Rick Stoddard, Kaiser's chairman and chief executive, said he believes his company's environmental analysis was “more than adequate.”

“Our steadfast belief continues to be that the Eagle Mountain landfill's environmental analysis was more than adequate and that the proper legal procedures were followed in completing the land exchange,” he said.

The company plans to seek a review of the decision by a broader panel of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges, Stoddard said.

The project site, which is surrounded on three sides by Joshua Tree National Park, could have received as much as 20,000 tons of Los Angeles County trash on a daily basis. The landfill's total capacity would have been 708 million tons.

Proponents, including the late Riverside County Supervisor Roy Wilson, argued the landfill would have benefited the Coachella Valley by creating jobs and generating nearly $1 billion for the county.

Opponents argued the landfill would have harmed the wildlife and air quality in the desert and Joshua Tree. As many as 1,500 people live in the area during winter, Charpied said.

“I wouldn't care if it was just three people affected; they shouldn't put garbage on a train and travel 200 miles and pollute the finest air quality in the nation,” she said.

The landfill would attract ravens and coyotes, which prey on young desert tortoises, while limiting the amount of space for bighorn sheep, said Mike Cipra, California Desert Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.

“There's a really robust and healthy population of desert bighorn sheep, and the health of that sheep depends on their ability to move,” he said. “If the sheep are isolated over time, they'll eventually going to have a lot of inbreeding and potentially not survive.”