Public Statement to Watsonville City Council

April 26, 2021
To: City Council of Watsonville
Statement re: Public safety & Legal issues re: Hillcrest Estates Development

 

Good evening, I am Lisa DuPont, a local resident here in Watsonville.
Thank you for listening to my testimony this evening. I am here tonight because of my deep concerns about the safety of the proposed Hillcrest project.

 

The original development project that this council voted on in 2018 was
for the contaminated land to be cleaned up and for new houses to be
constructed on the property. The contaminated soils were to be removed
because they are hazardous waste and the plan was for the toxic waste to
be disposed of in a hazardous waste dump. Those dumps are specially
lined with multiple layers of clay and plastic liners, they have groundwater monitoring systems and air pollution monitoring systems as well as financial bonds set aside to pay for the costs of remediation so that if the dump leaks, something can be done to stop the release of toxic waste into the local community.

 

What is being approved today is a fundamentally different project. This project now proposes to take the toxic waste from the site and bury it in a newly constructed toxic waste dump onsite. Yes, Watsonville will get its own toxic waste dump due to your actions this evening....but this toxic waste dump has no liners, no monitoring systems, no air pollution monitors, and no remediation bonds set aside for when the dump fails. Once this dump leaks (and it will eventually) there is no plan in place for how to clean it up except to say that it is now the responsibility of the new home owners...oh, and the taxpayers of Watsonville.

 

The toxic waste dump, containing about 20,000 cubic yards of toxic waste, being built in our town will be built on a hillside prone to landslides, in soils that are unstable, without anything but a flimsy retaining wall to separate the toxic waste from the community. Don’t be fooled, this is what you are voting for tonight. This toxic dump scheme and its potential impacts on our community were never analyzed in the environmental impact reports for the original Hillcrest development and the county has now given a separate permit for this toxic waste dump to be built.

Essentially, this project has been torn in two. We get a toxic waste dump blessed by the county, and a new development approved by the city. But the projects are one and the same, because without the development, the toxic waste dump would not be built. The land has stood vacant now for a decade and it is only because of the proposed development that now this dump is being build.

 

I urge you to vote no on this proposal tonight as the risks are just too great for our city, who, by the way, will now also become liable for future damages when the dump fails. Why? Since the city is, de facto, approving both the toxic waste dump and the development, since one would not occur without the other, they become a part of the chain of liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Because of case law holding the permitting agency liable for toxic waste dump leaks, now the citizens of Watsonville can be held liable when the dump leaks.

 

Again, I urge you to vote no on this development.