Santa Cruz County Local Issues
CONSERVATION UPDATE:
FOCUS ON SODA LAKE
~Vince Cheap, Conservation Committee Chair
Tucked away in the very southeastern corner of our county just north of Highway 129 near where it crosses the Pajaro River is a rare alkali plant community known as Soda Lake. According to Randall Morgan, a local botanical consultant and clover specialist, " The little valley of Soda Lake is one of the biological treasures of Santa Cruz County, with an ecological value out of proportion to its small size. It is the only alkaline ecosystem in this county, in fact the only such in the entire Santa Cruz Mountains bioregion. It is an extreme example of a "biological island", supporting flora and fauna unlike those anywhere in the surrounding countryside." Graniterock has applied to the County for a permit to carry out a mining spoils expansion project that will bury this biological hotspot (titled - DEIR for the Soda Lake Facility Expansion Project, SCH# 2003032048 February 2004).
The proposed expansion will cause an extirpation of at least 13 species from the county (R. Morgan, 2004) including two CNPS List 1B species- saline clover (Trifolium depauperatum var. hydrophilum) and Congdon's tarplant (Centromadia parryi ssp. congdonii). List 1B species meet the California Fish and Game Code Sections 2062 and 2067 (California Endangered Species Act) and are eligible for state listing. The DEIR fails to document the presence of either 1B species in the 4 years of surveys contained in its Biotic Assessment. Yet in spring 2004 a botanist conducting special status plant surveys for the project discovered 5.25 acres of saline clover within a larger 18 acre seasonally wet alkali grassland. Though the DEIR provisionally assumed the clover to be present, the magnitude of the discovery far exceeds expectations and draws into question the adequacy of the proposed mitigations. It is CNPS's opinion that the disclosure of this saline clover population after the DEIR was published and the magnitude of the discovery present significant new information requiring revision of the DEIR and recirculation.
This sudden discovery also calls into question the adequacy of the previous 4 years of plant surveys including an incomplete species list and a nearly complete lack of characterization of the overall uniqueness of this particular alkali grassland site. According to R. Morgan who visited the site on May 27, 2004 "…the valley of Soda Lake supports at least 15 to 19 alkali-dependent native plant species, none of which occur anywhere else in Santa Cruz County except, in 2 or 3 cases, on the immediate coast. The DEIR mentions only six of these species, and fails to point out the significance of even those few, much less the significance of the site as a whole."
I've enlisted the help of legal counsel Bill Parkin to create the most effective letter so that the County realizes the seriousness of our comments and opinions as an organization dedicated to the preservation of California native flora. I've consulted with experts and the regulatory agencies and thank them for all their assistance. State CNPS Conservation Director David Chipping has reviewed the letter and fully supports our position. I thank the local chapter board members for their financial support that allowed us to retain such an excellent attorney as Bill Parkin who gives of his time so generously to nonprofits like CNPS.
In conclusion I would like to view Soda Lake from a larger land use perspective. As I read the County's General Plan and Sensitive Habitat Ordinance it would appear that the destruction of such a site as Soda Lake is clearly unacceptable. In light of the fact that Graniterock's mining operation could easily continue operation by trucking spoils offsite it astounds me that the County has agreed that the only feasible alternative is to bury Soda Lake. CNPS hopes this is not a case of subverting good rules to save money.
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