Please Donate to Help Us Stop Indiscriminate Open Pit Mining in Yolo County
July 25, 2022
The Sierra Club Yolano Group, together with its local partner, Yolo Land and Water Defense, is desperately trying to stop a massive new sand and gravel open-pit mining operation. This proposed project will forever destroy 300 acres of productive prime farmland just off of Cache Creek a few miles west of Woodland. Almost in the city's backyard, this huge new surface mine will leave behind a wasteland of methyl mercury contaminated impoundment ponds, no guarantees of successful farmland reclamation, potentially serious decreases in local groundwater levels, and greenhouse gas and priority pollutant emissions far greater than estimated (see below for more detailed information about the project's environmental shortcomings).
Our lawsuit challenges improper mining project approvals. Over vigorous objections about the lack of appropriate environmental protections as required under California law, this project was recently approved by the Yolo County Supervisors when they certified a defective Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and awarded lucrative 30-year sweetheart mining rights to Teichert Mining. The company is a subsidiary of a billion-dollar mining and construction behemoth. To stop this ill-advised and destructive project unless necessary protections are put in place, the Sierra Club with our partners recently sued Yolo County and Teichert Mining to rescind certification of the EIR and project approvals.
The Sierra Club and a number of members of both organizations have already made very substantial contributions, but we urgently need to raise $12,000 more to continue this lawsuit all the way through trial. Please help us force Teichert Mining to act responsibly so that our children and future Yolo County generations can enjoy unpolluted habitat, productive agricultural land, safe and reliable access to good quality water, and clean, breathable air.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation of any amount.
1) By Credit Card or Paypal - Click on the online donation link here (https://www.mightycause.com/story/Yolanogroupsc)
2) By Check - Send your check payable to Sierra Club Foundation, c/o Yolano Group, 2736 Brentwood Pl in Davis CA 95618.
Thank you so much for your help!
Sincerely,
Alan Pryor, Chair
Sierra Club Yolano Group
A Grossly Defective Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
The EIR for the project has completely failed to identify and mitigate for this project's many destructive impacts.
Methyl Mercury Toxicity - Previous studies in identical mines have proven that methyl mercury, an extremely potent neurotoxin, is produced in high quantities in these impoundment pits. This toxin accumulates to dangerously elevated levels in fish that can be consumed by humans and wildlife causing irreparable health problems and even death if ingested in high quantities. But Teichert Mining only proposes that it will only "study the problem" when it inevitably occurs in the future but offers no guarantees of a solution.
Loss of Prime Farmland – Previous mining projects have shown that the so-called "reclaimed" farmland has never been brought back to pre-mining productive standards in terms of crop yields expected from prime farmland. At best the "reclaimed" farmland hasonly been farmed with lower-quality crops. But in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Teichert Mining still insists that its farmland reclamation processes produce yields equivalent to "prime farmland" and proposes no changes from past failures.
Unknown Adverse Impacts on Groundwater Levels - Many wells near the mining site have already recently gone dry and the impacts of huge water use by the mining operations have not been properly analyzed. Nor has Teichert Mining guaranteed adequate protections to ensure critical groundwater sources are available for local domestic and farming needs. As Yolo County Supervisor Gary Sandy stated, it is “reckless” to approve a thirsty mining project that will divert huge amounts of water for the next 30 years without carefully studying all of the impacts beforehand.
Unmitigated Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Emissions - The greenhouse gases and priority pollutants emitted by Teichert Mining's massive diesel-fueled earth-moving equipment and the tens of thousands of diesel truck trips needed to transport the finished mined products, much to other counties, are not properly calculated. Yolo County gets the unmitigated mining impacts while other counties reap the benefits of finished products delivered to them. This is simply unacceptable.
Thanks for taking the lead on this, Alan P.
And thanks to supervisor Gary Sandy - apparently the only one who didn't go along with this.
Posted by: Ron O | July 25, 2022 at 10:00 PM
I donated to this cause. I hope that others do, too.
Posted by: Roberta L. Millstein | July 25, 2022 at 11:09 PM
Yeah I know after reading this article I've come to the conclusion that we should consider entering talks with China to do a swap we give them California and we take Taiwan.
Posted by: Chris | August 01, 2022 at 04:58 PM