To:       The Ojai City Council

Last week, Michael Shapiro, Chairman of the Coalition and Howard Smith, Vice Chair, met with Dan Klemann of the Ventura County Planning Division to discuss our concerns regarding those trucks servicing the Lima Gypsum Mine which use Maricopa Highway, Route 33.

These Gypsum trucks are around 50 feet in length.  The Caltrans Advisory for Route 33 is only “30 feet from kingpin to rear axle.”  This would indicate that although legal, gypsum trucks are inherently unsafe on 33.

Drivers of these trucks are usually paid by the load, not the hour and many drivers attempt to make up to three runs a day from the mine all the way back to either farms in the Oxnard plain or concrete manufacturing facilities in Saticoy.  With each run taking anywhere from 3 – 4 hours, drivers are inherently pushed to go as fast as they can on Route 33 over the mountains, a circumstance that only adds to the grave dangers.

The existing permit allows the mine upwards of 240 (two hundred and forty) one way trips per day, that equates to 30 one way trips per hour – one every two minutes – in the course of an eight hour work day through the City of Ojai and up and over Maricopa Highway.

These trips are in addition to the 30 to 50 one way trips per day currently made six days a week by gravel trucks contracted primarily by TriCounty Trucking of Saticoy to haul supplies between the GPS Mine in Santa Barbara County and cement and other processing facilities in Oxnard, Saticoy and Camarillo, such as the Angelus Cement Block Factory in Saticoy. (Note: GPS’s new C.U.P. expansion application in Santa Barbara County calls for the ultimate elimination of these trucks south.)

Given the recent crash in off Route 154 in Santa Barbara of a gravel truck that destroyed a home and killed three people living therein, it would seem to be highly appropriate time for the County to re-examine the conditions of C.U.P. 0043-1 under which Lima (aka Quantel Canyon Gypsum Mine) operates. The topography of Route 154 is similar in many regards to Maricopa Highway as it comes over the mountains and back into the city proper.

The permit for Lima Gypsum Mine does not expire for another 14 years, not until 2024.

In their meeting with Mr. Klemann, the Coalition requested that the Planning Director, Kim Prillhart, use her powers of descretion to impose one additional Condition on the C.U.P.  This request is consistent with the existing C.U.P., which on page 6, item 5, it gives the Planning Director the ability to impose additional conditions on the mining operation. Further, Item 17 on page 12 notes that if various guidelines or regulations are in conflict, the more restrictive ones should apply.

More specifically the Coalition is requesting that in the cause of public safety the Planning Director impose a new condition on the existing permit that forbids the mine to contract with any truck or trucking firm that uses vehicles to haul gypsum on Route 33 that are in excess of the existing 30 foot advisory.

This condition in no way hinders Lima from it current operation as access to the mine can easily be made from the west through the 101 freeway and from the east through the 5 freeway, highways much more befitting the size and nature of these large haulers.

That act alone would move these trucks off of Route 33 and back onto the freeways where they belong.

Therefore, the Coalition is formally asking the Ojai City Council to come out with a unanimous resolution to the Ventura County Resource Management Agency and the Planning Division in support of this additional condition.

Thank you,
Ojai “Stop the Trucks” Coalition