Stop the Trucks: Complaints #52 - #59
(Ortiz Bottom Dumping Double Hoppers similar to this one that jack-knifed on the snow two winters ago have been observed making early morning runs this past week)
County Planning Director Kim Rodriguez, Senior Planner Daniel Kleeman, Director of Resource Managment Chris Stephens, and Deputy County CEO Matt Carroll, met with our Executive Committee in Ojai last week. Despite the cordial nature of the meeting, the reality on the roadways through Ojai has only deteriorated since then.
We therefore asked them to add these latest incidents below to our list of formal complaints:
#52: We did a quick review of the Reponses to the limited number of our prior complaints that were included in the County's response to our public records request. Unfortunately we found that in almost all cases, blatant and obvious violations of the C.U.P. time schedule existed in almost every instance - and were totally ignored by Planning staff. We will have a more detailed response to all of these Weigh Tickets in the near future.
#53: Although County staff's echoed John Hecht, the agent for Ozena, and his claims that loaded trucks do not have to be covered under the State Highway Code, a simple reading of the C.U.P. clearly indicates that there is a higher standard in the C.U.P. that Ozena continually fails to meet.
On Page 13, of C.U.P. 5170, Condition 30, (Prevention of Construction Material Spillage) states: "Before loaded trucks travel outside the processing area (i.e. before crossing the Cuyama River) as identified on the Site Plan (Exhibit 4), the permitee shall ensure all trucks leaving the area are constructed, covered, loaded to prevent any of the contents from dropping, sifting, leaking blowing, spilling or otherwise escaping from the vehicle onto private or public roadways or the Cuyama River."
Is there some other meaning to "covered", that we have failed to understand here?
#54: On March 3, 2009, the Ventura County Planning Division delivered a large number of documents and records to the Ojai Stop the Trucks which will take the members of the Coalition some time to review. Seemingly missing however from this delivery was the one category of records that could help settle this ongoing dispute, Weigh Tickets from 2008.
The documents and the accusations on either side are actually just a distraction from the bottom line of this conflict which boils down to one or two very simple questions. Has Ozena in regards their C.U.P. been, “(A),” a good corporate citizen or, “(B),” have they not.
Fortunately the answer to this question can be easily be determined by one simple and absolute documentary test of Weigh Tickets.
For example, the one set of weigh tickets that the County has shared with the Coalition so far, the ones for February 8, 2008, show that Ozena was in likely violation that day. In other words, 100% of the weigh tickets now show a 100% probability that Ozena has been in violation, a fact recently confirmed by senior Planning staffer, Dan Kleeman.
Therefore it is easily deduced that any thorough and public analysis of the weigh tickets for Ozena will show whether, (A), they’ve been good corporate citizens, or ,(B), they have not.
If the records show that Ozena has operated properly over the last year since being informed by the Planning Director, Kim Rodriguez, that the rules will be strictly enforced, then the County will have irrefutably demonstrated that Stop the Trucks has been off base with its complaints. If, however, it turns out that Ozena has been a regular violator of the C.U.P., then the Coalition’s stance will have been shown to be justified.
It is for this reason that the Coalition has repeatedly made requests for a full year’s worth of weight tickets. Let the simple truth be known. Is the answer, (A) or (B)?
We have asked for a full year of data – as opposed to the County’s desire to analyze only one month - in order to get a clear picture of what has been going on up at the mine. Trucking volumes have decreased over the past 12 months due to the recession.
A one month sample could easily skew the results if the selection included a recession month and a couple of snow storms – such as the month of December 2008, which Kim Rodriguez suggested she might just pick. It might also miss the three - four months between the time this past summer and fall when Tony Virgilio’s Weighmaster Certificate apparently expired and Alliance took over daily operation. Who, for example, was weighing and certifying truck loads in July, August, September and early October? Was it Tony with a possible expired certificate or was Alliance doing it prematurely and in possible violation of the C.U.P. they swore to uphold?
Yes, we’d like for the public to see and be able to analyze one full years worth of weigh tickets from 2008.
And why wouldn’t the individual staff members of the Planning County Division, the Resource Management Agency, senior administrators, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors also want to settle this dispute once and for all by a simple review of the actual facts embodied in a full years worth of records?
Everything else before us, every other opinion and document, is merely a distraction based on whether or not one feels that (A) or (B) is correct.
We hope the County government will join us in seeing that this very real and simple test is undertaken and the real truth will become know for all to judge.
(According to a letter just received today from Resource Management Agency Director, Chris Stephens, it appears that the county is NOT interested in obtaining these additional weigh tickets.)
#55: On Friday, February 27, 2009, a white double hopper truck from Swader left the north end of the restricted zone just after 1:00pm (okay) but them came back down the mountain fully loaded and entered the restricted zone at 3:20 pm. If this truck had been coming form Ozena, this would be another probably violation.
#56: On Monday, March 2, 2009 a red double hopper passed through the zone heading north at 7:05 am. At 7:15 am another Swader double hopper entered the southern end of the restricted zone heading north towards Ozena. At 4:05 pm yet another Swader double hopper was spotted going south through the zone while uncovered. If these trucks here traveling to and form Ozena, this trips would also be potential violations.
#57: On Thursday March 5, 2009 a Swader double hopper truck was spotted headed south bound at 3:30 pm in the restricted zone. Yet another possible violation...
#58: On Monday, March 9, 2009, there were multiple reports of bottom dumping double hoppers beginning to move through the restricted zone and on up the mountain toward Ozena as early as 3:30 am!!! Several of the trucks spotted were from Ortiz trucking and several others were familiar "rust buckets' -- beat up old double hoppers frequently seen traveling between the mountains, Ojai and Oxnard on Route 33 and the 101 to Vineyard.
#59: On Tuesday, March 10, 2009 trucks again were noted passing north through the restricted zone and elsewhere on 33 in the Ojai Valley heading north. At 7:10 am an Ortiz bottom dumper double hopper was spotted entering the restricted zone form the north fully loaded and uncovered. Just a little over an hour later at 8:05 am the same Ortiz truck was spotted empty running north through the zone.
Between 4:00 pm and 4:30 pm, three more of these bottom dumpers - all of which probably violate the Route 33 "King Pin to Rear Axle" advisory of 30 feet - were spotted going south through the restricted zone while fully loaded and uncovered.
The existing C.U.P. for Ozena indicates that all vehicles must follow Caltrans and the State of California Advisory Guidelines in regards truck length (King Pin To Rear Axle) on rural highways. The 2001 C.U.P. for Ozena incorrectly suggests that this length for Route 33 is 38 feet. In fact, as can be seen from the photo below, the posted length at the start of Maricopa Highway is actually only 30 feet.
According to Brent Beall, manufacturer of the bottom dump trailers that Valley Bulk and other companies use, the measurement from the King Pin of the semi to center of the rear axle of the pull trailer is 535". This translates into 44.4 feet.
If this is correct, then it would appear that the trailers used by Ortiz and other bottom dumpers for all of these years on the Ozena runs over the mountains through Ojai would be in violation not only of the 30 foot advisory posted by Caltrans but also of the 38 foot length incorrectly listed in the 2001 C.U.P. for Ozena. 535 inches translates into 44.4 feet.
If any of these vehicles had been coming or going to Ozena, their trips would constitute yet additional potential violations.
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