Draft Environmental Impact Report Comments
The EIR needs to be revised and resubmitted because its project description is inadequate and misleading, it relies on incomplete site hazard data, and it cites outdated enrollment data to improperly reject otherwise feasible alternatives, all of which frustrates meaningful public input.
The independent regulators at the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) agree with many of our points, per a letter from DTSC to the District, linked below:
Draft EIR “lacks the necessary information” to “fully evaluate the impacts” of the new renovation plan,
Rush to review the EIR that is mostly about the discarded project is “unproductive and does not serve the public interest”;
It is not clear why the District has selected the renovation option when three out of six objectives are only partially achieved, whereas other alternatives substantially achieved those objectives;
The EIR sites a human health report based on data that DTSC already deemed “insufficient for multiple reasons.”
Plan to Demolish and Rebuild Middle School Discarded as Financially Infeasible
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Soil Test Results
The proposed site is on top of an old burn dump.
It contains hazardous levels of lead and potentially explosive methane gas, all of which is presently capped by just 2-3 feet of clay soil that would, of course, be disrupted during construction or renovation of the current building.
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Sea Level Rise Risks
The current site is in a flood plain, which is expected to worsen with climate change.
Rising groundwater will cause the toxic substances from the former burn dump to surface.
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Seismic Risks
The proposed Renovation option would cost nearly $100 million, but it would leave the 1970s foundation as-is. If that can be approved, what are the seismic implications?
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Other Ideas
We want solutions that will lead us toward a beautiful and modern Middle School. It has been hard. Here is what could work.
