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The views expressed herein are the personal views of each individual author or commenter and are not intended to reflect the views of The Ojai Post or its Authors, Tribal Core or Tyler Suchman as managing editor.

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Stop the Trucks: Long Road Ahead in Gravel Truck Fight

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(photo credit to Daly Road Graphics, Ray Smith)

In a recent column in the Ojai Valley News, reporter Linda Harmon wrote:

Even after a Ventura County court upheld C.U.P. restrictions for the Ozena gravel mines for both north- and south-bound traffic, and re-affirmed the county's power to apply them, the gravel trucks keep on rolling. And Stop the Trucks Coalition says it must keep on fighting.

For the full Story go to: http://ovnblog.com/?p=486 Highlights follow below:

"We intend to keep protecting the valley from these interests that would violate their conditional use permits and send more trucks rumbling through our valley," said Howard Smith, vice chairman of Stop the Trucks.

Stop the Trucks has been actively documenting violations in hopes of either getting county officials to strictly enforce existing governmental controls, or revoke the offending mine's C.U.P. entirely.

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(photo credit to Daly Road Graphics, Ray Smith)

At its Oct. 14 meeting, the city of Ojai joined the effort and committed to backing the nonprofit organization with needed funds.

...there have been numerous probable recent violations by gravel trucks traveling along the Highway 33 corridor during forbidden hours. The mine's C.U.P. allows gravel trucks to travel only between 6 to 7 a.m. and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays.

The group has been in contact with Kim Rodriguez, Ventura County Planning director, and her superiors, requesting all weight tickets from Ozena between Dec. 1, 2007 and Aug. 12, 2008, to gain more evidence of non-compliance and force the withdrawal of Ozena's C.U.P., which would halt its operations.

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(photo credit to Daly Road Graphics, Ray Smith)

...in a letter dated Aug. 21, 2006, the Ojai Valley Municipal Advisory Council warned county officials that "SR-33 has suffered many landslides and slipped roadways in past years. The vibration created by the mine's trucks on SR-33 may be adding significantly to the problem of road slippage, slumps, and slides. No review of vibration as a potential impact on SR-33 has been included in the Draft MND and vibration from trucks may present a significant adverse impact on the environment."

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(photo credit to Dan & Maureen Smith)

According to Smith, a Caltrans District 7 traffic study dated July 2007, concluded that State Route 33 is maintained to provide safe travel for all motorists and is designed to accommodate large trucks. After the collapse, Maria Raptis, spokesperson for Caltrans District 7, said that the study had focused exclusively on the geometric design of the road for safe and orderly movement of vehicles, but not on the effect of the vibrations caused by the heavy trucks.

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(photo credit to Dan & Maureen Smith)

Stop the Trucks Coalition has repeatedly questioned whether SR-33 should be open to any heavy gravel trucks. Smith questions "why extensive studies of the impact of gravel trucks are being excluded from the EIR review process."

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(photo credit to Dan & Maureen Smith)

Posted by Howard Smith on December 31, 2008 01:40 PM | | | Stop the Trucks: Long Road Ahead in Gravel Truck Fight