Three governmental agencies, one with a blatant conflict of interest, have quietly formulated a plan to move from Richmond to Solano County the major portion of millions of dollars intended to restore environmental resources damaged by Chevron in Richmond.

The following letter, which explains the plot in substantial detail, was sent this week from Mayor Gayle McLaughlin to Congressman George Miller, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, Senator Perata and Assemblywoman Hancock.

What can you do? Press “reply to all” and add your message to the legislators listed above urging them to investigate and reverse this misuse of funds that adversely affects Richmond residents.

Subject: Castro Cove – Tentative Settlement with Chevron/Restoration Planning

We were shocked to learn on Friday, July 13, 2007, at a meeting of the City of Richmond/East Bay Regional Park District Liaison Committee that the U.S. Department of the Interior is planning to divert to Solano County over two-thirds of the proceeds from a settlement for damage to natural resources in the City of Richmond.

We are requesting that you meet with the Secretary of the Interior to review how and why this preliminary decision was made and to find a way to make sure the entirety of the funds are used in Richmond where the damage has occurred.

We understand that this action was taken pursuant to provisions of 42 USC Section 9607(f) and provisions of CERCLA and OPA for damage to Castro Cove in Richmond by Chevron over a period of many years. As we understand the process, two agencies of the Department of the Interior (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA) and the California Department of Fish and Game/Office of Spill Prevention and Response are designated as trustees to negotiate or litigate recovery of damages and to determine how and where the proceeds are used.  Since one of the 3 trustees is with the Califorina Department of Fish and Game, we thought you might have an interest in this.

We first became aware of this action in late 2006 when a representative of NOAA met with former Mayor Irma Anderson and Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay to brief them on the action and the process. Following that meeting, Richmond City Council member Tom Butt was told by Natalie Cosentino-Manning of NOAA to expect a public meeting in Richmond in January, 2007, where use of the funds in Richmond could be explored. That public meeting never occurred.

At the same time, we were advised by several natural resource advocates, including Rich Walkling, Senior Restoration Planner of the Natural Heritage Institute, to pay close attention to the matter because there were indications that the federal agencies involved wanted to move the proceeds of any settlement out of Richmond to Solano County. There was a similar situation some five or so years ago when funds for environmental damage along Richmond's shoreline were used for a restoration project also in Solano County. This did not sit well with Richmond residents, and they have not forgotten it.

Representatives from Richmond and the East Bay Regional Park District indicated to NOAA that they felt strongly that any funds should be used for projects in Richmond.

During the early part of 2006, there were additional meetings between representatives of NOAA and Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay and East Bay Regional Parks District staff. Both the City and the District representatives continued to make strong pitches for using the settlement proceeds in Richmond. Richmond City Council member Tom Butt had several communications with Natalie Cosentino-Manning of NOAA who told us she was compiling a list of Richmond sites that could be beneficiaries of the settlement.

Then, on July 13, Daniel Welsh, Chief, Division of Environmental Contaminants, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Charles C. McKinley, Assistant Field Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior, San Francisco Field Office, appeared at the City of Richmond/East Bay Regional Park District Liaison Committee meeting to inform the group that the recommendation of the trustees is to reserve $750,000 for restoration of 30 acres of tidal marsh in the 210-acre Breuner marsh project in Richmond and to reserve $1,900,000 for 173 acres of the 1,500-acre Cullinan ranch wetland restoration in Solano County.

This was exactly the outcome we had been warned about in 2006, and it appeared that the decision had been pre-ordained.

In the discussion that ensued, Welsh and McKinley defended their decision by saying:

·         The Cullinan project was ready to go, whereas Richmond projects would require time to plan and conduct environmental reviews. They said they were constrained to spend the money for a project sooner than later.

·         They went through a complex “natural resource damage assessment” process that they couldn’t explain very well but which included terms such as “bird years.” The upshot, they said, was that the Cullinan Ranch project would provide more resource benefit than any Richmond project.

·         They said that Chevron had tentatively approved the settlement and that to change its terms might jeopardize it.

In response, we established the following:

·         The Breuner Marsh project, alone, will require some $7 million to complete. The East Bay Regional Parks District is committed to the project and prepared to move it along as quickly as possible. It can be phased, so that if the entire $2,650,000 from the Castro Cove settlement were made available, the funds could go into the project in the near future.

·         There are other ideal projects in Richmond, such as restoration of historic Castro Cove wetlands shown in old USGS maps, the filled, contaminated and otherwise degraded western end of Hoffman Marsh east of Baxter Creek (South 51st Street), which includes the Liquid Gold site, and may be within boundary of Eastshore State Park. And, of course, there is the forest of rotting pilings in the Bay in vicinity of Point San Pablo and just north of the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge where the Richmond/San Rafael auto ferry was located before the bridge was opened.

·         There are decades of abuse of the Richmond shoreline by industry, and there are significant environmental justice issues related to this abuse. It is inconceivable that funds resulting from this abuse should be funneled into another County instead of being used in Richmond.

·         Our understanding is that Chevron would rather see the funds used in Richmond.

Welsh and McKinley were not moved. They informed us that a draft Restoration Plan would be prepared, and that there would be an opportunity for public input. Even though that public input could include suggestions for alternate plans, we fear that the train will have left the station, and it will be difficult to turn it around.

We are concerned that the proposed allocation of funds and the justification thereof was constructed to fit a decision that had been made before the evaluation process started. We believe that once the amount of settlement had been negotiated, the trustees have substantial flexibility within the law as to how they are used.

We also believe that the Trustee agencies have an apparent conflict of interest in diverting the Castro Cove settlement funds from restoration of Richmond's shoreline to lands the USFWS owns and jointly administers with DFG as part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Cullinan Ranch was purchased by the USFWS in 1992. See http://www.fws.gov/sfbayrefuges/San%20Pablo/San%20Pablo%20Gen.pdf for a map and info about the Refuge.

Contact information for the federal staff mentioned in this letter is listed below:

Natalie Cosentino-Manning

Marine Ecologist/Restoration Specialist

NOAA Fisheries

777 Sonoma Ave

Santa Rosa , CA  95404-6515

707-575-6081

Natalie.C-Manning@noaa.gov

Charles C. McKinley

Assistant Field Solicitor

San Francisco Field Office

U.S. Department of the Interior

1111 Jackson Street, Suite 735

Oakland, CA 94607

510/817-1461

Daniel Welsh, Ph.D.

Chief, Division of Environmental Contaminants

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

2800 Cottage Way, Room W-2605

Sacramento, CA 95825

916-414-6591

Daniel_welsh@fws.goc

To date, there has been no input from the Richmond environmental justice, toxic remediation and natural resource preservation communities who should be part of an open-ended discussion.  Without your timely intervention, it appears that the people of Richmond will continue to be the victims of environmental abuse that can be quantified in so many ways, including high rates of cancer, asthma and childhood obesity. Our people and the wildlife that use our shoreline for habitat deserve to benefit from the repair of this abuse, not Solano County.