HomeMy WebLinkAboutEmailed Comment from Christina Dunbar-Hester1
Brandon DeCriscio
From:Christina Dunbar-Hester <dunbarhe@usc.edu>
Sent:Friday, December 5, 2025 10:40 AM
To:Shaun Temple
Subject:Hellman Solar PV Project: conduct a full Environmental Impact Report
Dear Shaun Temple and Members of the Seal Beach City Council,
I write regarding the Hellman Solar PV Project, proposed to be sited on a parcel of land immediately
adjacent to the Los Cerritos Wetlands. I am a resident of Long Beach, a professor at USC, and a
researcher whose expertise includes the history of infrastructure and energy development in San Pedro
Bay.
As you are no doubt aware, we have lost thousands upon thousands of acres of coastal and estuarial
habitat to development in Southern California. After a century of treating wetlands as an obstacle to
shoreline management, infrastructure development, and roadbuilding, etc., we have come to value
wetlands as ecologically diverse and unique environments that are exceptionally “productive” for
supporting wildlife, filtering and reclaiming groundwater, buffering shorelines against storms, and more.
As climate crisis intensifies, sensitive ecologies and their wild inhabitants (both year-round and
migratory) need more support, not less. I thus join other residents, experts, and stakeholders in
advocating that the full environmental impacts of the project be considered before deciding where (or if)
to place new energy infrastructure. The placement of these solar panels (with disruptive noise, lights,
glint, and glare) adjacent to ecologically beneficial but fragile wetlands concerns us.
With current scientific uncertainty, especially for wetland-adjacent photovoltaic projects, a full
Environmental Impact Report would offer the information needed to either proceed with this site or learn
that harms and risks outweigh benefits. I respectfully request that you proceed with this project only
after conducting a full EIR that shows conclusively that wildlife reliant on the wetlands won’t suffer
adverse effects.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Christina Dunbar-Hester
--
Christina "Join AAUP" Dunbar-Hester
Professor
"Oil, Life, and Everyday Fossil Fascism: Appropriative Signification in U.S. Petroleum Supremacy " in Communication,
Culture & Critique
Oil Beach: How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond, University of Chicago Press
"What Environmental Conservation Looks Like At America's Biggest Port" in Zócalo Public Square
2
Contact:
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
University of Southern California
office: ANN 414J
email: dunbarhe@usc.edu
mail: 3502 Watt Way, Building 32, Los Angeles/Tovaangar, CA 90089 USA
zoom: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6761300590
This email was composed by a human being.