What if I told you that the County of Santa Barbara is
considering putting a new underground emergency operations center right next
to, or likely in, the Santa Ynez Airport landfill,
which contains contaminated waste, would you believe it? Well, it’s true.
Last week I attended a meeting where a county staff
representative from CEO Mike Brown’s office told us that the Santa Ynez Airport Landfill was one of three sites being
considered by the county to build their new multi-million dollar emergency
center. As you may recall, the Santa Ynez Airport
landfill has a documented history of contaminating the soil and groundwater
around it, and has been doing so for a long time. The county was suppose to study this
environmental threat and produce a comprehensive environmental impact report to
help determine the best course of action to remediate the contamination on site
– but that EIR was never completed. I will have more on the contaminated
landfill issue in the coming weeks; for now let’s get back to the EOC.
So, out of over 1 million acres to choose from in the county
for this new EOC, the county picks the contaminated Santa Ynez
Airport landfill as one of supposedly three locations that are most
desirable. Add the fact that this
location is over 30 miles from where the EOC staff is located and that it can
easily be cut off from the rest of the county if Highways 154 and 101 are
compromised. Top it off two more facts, that the vast majority of all EOC calls
are triggered from incidents in the South County and that over 90 percent of
the county’s population is either more than 30 miles north of this Santa Ynez location or more than 30 miles south of it.
I think the county owes the community a clear explanation as
to how they can justify even considering locating this new emergency operating
center at the Santa Ynez Valley Airport landfill.
There is no common sense reason to pick this site, or for that matter to have
it as an option. I also think that if Mike Brown insists on pursuing this path
and recommending to the Board of Supervisors that this location be considered,
we in the community should not sit by and allow it.
What do you think?