Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 24, 2010

3

Around San Gabriel Valley

 MountainViews-News Saturday, July 24, 2010 

Duarte

Altadena


Council Unanimously Votes to Commence Litigation Against

City of Azusa and Vulcan Materials Company

Ned Wright Speaks to MWOA Saturday, July 
24 On WISE Infrared Survey Explorer

At 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 24, at the Altadena Public Library, you can 
explore a whole new Universe, as surveyed by an infrared telescope in 
space. Dr. Edward L. (Ned) Wright, Professor of Physics and Astronomy 
at UCLA, will speak on “Exploring the Universe with WISE,” at MWOA’s 
monthly lecture/meeting. (Note that the meeting date, for this and all 
subsequent meetings, is on a Saturday, due to the closure of the library 
on Sundays.)

 The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) was launched in 
December 2009, and its all-sky survey began in mid-January 2010. WISE 
is expected to detect hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies, including 
millions of ultra-luminous infrared galaxies and quasars; hundreds of thousands of asteroids; and 
hundreds old cold brown dwarf stars. This orbiting telescope takes more than 7,000 framesets per 
day, with each frameset covering 0.6 square degrees of sky.

 Dr. Wright currently holds a David Saxon Presidential Chair in Physics & Astronomy at UCLA. He 
was data team leader for COBE, co-investigator on WMAP, interdisciplinary scientist on the Spitzer 
Space Telescope, and is the principal investigator on WISE.

 The lecture is free of charge, and all are welcome. Refreshments will be served before the talk, 
beginning at 2:00 p.m. The Altadena Public Library is located at 600 E. Mariposa Street in Altadena, 
two stop signs west of Lake Avenue at the corner of Mariposa and Santa Rosa Avenue (“Christmas 
Tree Lane”). Exit the 210 freeway at Lake Avenue in Pasadena and go approximately 2.5 miles north 
to Mariposa Street in Altadena. Turn left on Mariposa, go to the second stop sign, turn left on Santa 
Rosa, and turn into the parking lot at the first driveway on your right.

 The Duarte City Council unanimously voted to 
commence litigation against the City of Azusa 
and Vulcan Materials Company. The vote was 
taken during a closed session of the Duarte City 
Council on July 22. The litigation will challenge 
the environmental review and entitlement 
approval process utilized for the Vulcan mine 
expansion project. The lawsuit also pertains to 
certain Brown Act violations by the City of Azusa. 
The City of Azusa gave its final approval to the 
project on July 19. It permits Vulcan to expand 
mining operations from a currently approved 
and partially mined 80 acres on the east side of 
its 270 acre property to pristine Van Tassel Ridge 
above Duarte homes and schools.

 Following the closed session, Duarte 
City Manager, Darrell George read the following 
statement:

CITY MANAGER’S STATEMENT ON 
INITIATING LAWSUIT TO CHALLENGE 
AZUSA’S APPROVAL OF THE VULCAN 
MINING EXPANSION PLAN 

 For years, the City of Duarte has attempted to 
work with both Vulcan Materials Company and 
the City of Azusa to create a mining strategy for the 
Azusa Rock Quarry that benefits the citizens of the 
San Gabriel Valley. Well before the December 23, 
2009, date when the DEIR was released, the City 
was monitoring the potential for an expansion 
project. In fact, the initial attempt by Vulcan 
to submit a project to Azusa was questioned by 
Duarte and thus 
rejected outright 
almost four years 
ago. Going back 
to a joint meeting 
with the Azusa City 
Council on January 
29, 2008, and the 
establishment of 
the FAVE (Fight 
Against Vulcan 
Expansion) fund 
in July 2008 in 
the amount of 
$700,000, the City 
of Duarte has been 
refuting all aspects 
of the proposed 
expansion. In the 
last year alone, 
several hundred 
hours of time 
have been spent 
by experts, staff, 
and concerned 
citizens to review 
and comment on the Development Agreement, 
CUP, and EIR. Town Hall meetings have been 
held with AQMD, and attended by legislative 
representatives from the State, County, and 
Federal levels, along with the City of Hope. The 
City’s webpage alone has posted upwards of 60 
documents from just the past year associated 
with opposition to the mining expansion. When 
Vulcan and Azusa officials have asked to meet 
with Duarte officials, Duarte has always obliged.

 One such time was earlier in January, when 
in response to their request, the City of Duarte 
made a proposal asking for jurisdictional control 
of adjacent property to protect against future 
expansion, as well as compensation for damages 
and financial guarantees to Duarte to assure 
delivery of the promised reclamation, as part of 
an overall settlement. This too was refused by 
Vulcan and the City of Azusa. Duarte hoped that 
its concerns could be addressed through those 
discussions. 

 Duarte’s concerns are significant, but simple:

• Develop a Mining Plan That Protects 
All Residents of the San Gabriel Valley: For 
years, Duarte has advocated a plan to save the 
Van Tassel Ridge. Unfortunately, Duarte’s plan 
was dismissed without any meaningful analysis. 

• Environmental Protections for 
San Gabriel Valley Citizens: Duarte urged 
Vulcan and Azusa to install on-site air quality 
monitoring stations at the Vulcan facility. That 
basic mitigation and monitoring strategy was 
rejected without meaningful discussion. 

• Preparation of a Complete and 
Adequate Environmental Impact Report: 
Duarte submitted literally hundreds of comments 
concerning the many flaws in the environmental 
analysis of the Vulcan EIR. Those comments 
have been dismissed or ignored.

• Conduct a Legal Public Process: Duarte 
warned Azusa that its “reconsideration” of 
Vulcan’s mining entitlements and development 
agreement violated the Brown Act’s agenda and 
noticing requirements. Again, Duarte’s warnings 
were ignored.

 These efforts, and many others, were designed to 
avoid litigation with Azusa and Vulcan. In fact, 
Duarte hired its own geotechnical consultants 
to generate the “Good Neighbor Plan” and to 
independently analyze the volume of aggregate 
on the site. Those efforts centered on finding a 
solution for all parties. Duarte also allowed its 
own legal team to review Azusa’s development 
agreement for the purpose of making it better, so 
that all of the Citizens of the San Gabriel Valley 
would have more assurances that the “benefits” 
promised by Vulcan would actually be delivered. 

 It is frequently reported to the public that 
Duarte put aside $700,000 to fight the Vulcan 
mining plan. But a closer look at how that money 
has been spent so far shows that Duarte has used 
its resources to improve upon the profoundly 
flawed plan generated by Vulcan and approved 
by Azusa. The simple reality is that litigation 
was, and always has been, a last resort. Duarte 
sought, first and foremost, to have Vulcan and 
Azusa address Duarte’s legitimate concerns about 
the significant, adverse, and long term impacts of 
Vulcan’s mining plan.

 Despite its best efforts, Duarte is simply out of 
options. Litigation is a measure of last resort, and 
Duarte finds litigation against a neighboring city 
particularly distasteful. Unfortunately, because 
all of Duarte’s other efforts have been ignored, 
and because the Vulcan Mining Plan poses 
unnecessary and substantial threats to the safety, 
desirability, and beauty of the San Gabriel Valley, 
Duarte must resort to the courts to protect its 
rights and the rights of the broader San Gabriel 
Valley community. To that end, the Duarte City 
Council has authorized the commencement of 
litigation against the City of Azusa and Vulcan, 
challenging the environmental review and 
entitlement approval process utilized for the 
Vulcan mine expansion project.

 Duarte Mayor Margaret Finlay said she hopes 
the citizens of Duarte understand that the 
decision to proceed with litigation was not taken 
lightly. 

“This is something that is going to go way beyond 
my lifetime in the impact that it is going to have 
on this valley. When mining started in the 1920’s 
there were less than 100,000 people that lived 
in the San Gabriel Valley and it was pick ax and 
shovel. And today to think of blowing 600 to 800 
feet off the top of a mountain when you have more 
than 2 million people that live in this valley that 
is unconscionable. There are other places to mine 
aggregate. You can look at a federal land swap, 
there are a lot of things that we can look at but 
Vulcan never wanted to do it. This is a last resort 
for us. This is something we have to do. We have 
to take a stand because this is for people who will 
be here long after I’m here. They are going to have 
to take a look at that lousy looking hillside and in 
between now and then we’re going to be sucking 
a whole lot of dust.”

 Duarte isn’t alone in the ongoing fight over 
the mining expansion plan. A coalition of 
Azusa residents, Azusans Against Mining 
Expansion, have begun circulating a petition for 
a referendum to put the decision into the hands 
of Azusa voters. The group will need to collect 
about 1,660 signatures of Azusa voters by Aug. 19 
for the issue to qualify for a special election. The 
website for Azusans Against Mining Expansion 
is: www.nominingexpansion.org. 

 For more information about Duarte’s Fight 
Against Vulcan Expansion, call Deputy City 
Manager, Karen Herrera at (626) 357-7931, ext. 
223.

Arcadia

 If you have a clear speaking voice without accent 
or impediment and are free on Monday mornings 
from 10 a.m. until noon, you are eligible to tutor 
in the Conversational Skills Class held at the 
Arcadia Public Library on Monday mornings 
from 10 am till noon. 

 No prior teaching experience is required---
only a desire to help foreign-born residents 
improve their English speaking skills so they 
can communicate with their neighbors, their 
children’s teachers, the doctor and the grocer. 

 Both men and women substitute tutors are needed 
for this program run entirely with volunteers 
and co-sponsored by the Arcadia Public Library 
and Arcadia Branch American Association of 
University Women. An orientation/training 
meeting will be held on July 19 at 10 a.m. There 
is no obligation in attending. Please contact the 
Library Services Manager at (626) 821-5570 for 
further information or to let us know you would 
like to attend.

Volunteer English Tutors Needed


Sierra Madre

Pet CPR Class Held


Last Saturday, the Sierra Madre Volunteer Fire Department and Paramedics held a Pet First Aid and 
CPR training session at La Salle High School. Participants practiced on ‘stuffed’ pets, learning how 
to administer rescue breathing, choking and much more. Photo by Dean Lee/MVNews


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com