HomeMy WebLinkAboutEQCB 1998-12-02
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City of Seal Beach
Environmental Quality Control Board
Minutes of December 2, 1998
The adjourned Environmental Quality Control Board (EQCB) meeting of
December 2,1998 was called to order at 6:30 p.m. The meeting was held in City
Council Chambers and began with the Salute to the Flag.
ROLL CALL
Mr. Whittenberg said Members Porter and McGuire telephoned to say they would
not be present tonight and it would be appropriate to excuse their absences.
Present:
Absent:
Members Voce, Hurley, Jones
Members Porter, McGuire
Also
Present:
Department of Development Services
Lee Whittenberg, Director
MOTION by Voce; SECOND by Jones that the Board grant Members Porter and
McGuire excused absences.
MOTION CARRIED:
AYES:
ABSENT:
3-0-2
Voce, Hurley, Jones
Porter, McGuire
Mr. Whittenberg advised the Acting Chairperson, Donna McGuire was not
present and it was appropriate for the Board to select a Chairperson Pro-Tern for
this meeting.
MOTION by Voce; SECOND by Jones that Member Hurley would be the Acting
Chairperson.
MOTION CARRIED:
AYES:
ABSENT:
3-0-2
Voce, Hurley, Jones
Porter, McGuire
AGENDA APPROVAL
Acting Chairperson Hurley waived reading of the Agenda.
MOTION by Voce; SECOND by Jones to approve the Agenda as presented.
MOTION CARRIED:
AYES:
ABSENT:
3-0-2
Voce, Hurley,Jones
Porter, McGuire
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City of Seal Beach EQCB Minutes of December 2, 1998
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
There were no oral communications.
CONSENT CALENDAR
There were no Consent Calendar items.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
There were no Public Hearing items.
SCHEDULED MATTERS
1. Approval of Minutes for September 30. 1998
MOTION by Voce; SECOND by Jones to approve the EQCB Minutes of
September 30, 1998 as amended.
Discussion before the vote: Acting Chairperson Hurley had the following
corrections:
o Page 12, lines 31-32: ISA is the International Society of Arboriculture
[J Page 14, line 28: Period after ", that day" and start new sentence with
"On earlier occasions...".
o Page 16, line 42: Type corrected from "is" to "if'.
o Page 13, line 31: Spelling of II Arboriculture"
MOTION CARRIED:
AYES:
ABSENT:
3-0-2
Voce, Hurley,Jones
Porter, McGuire
2. Approval of Minutes for October 28. 1998
MOTION by Voce; SECOND by Jones to approve the EQCB Minutes of
October 28, 1998 as amended
Before the vote f'cting Chairperson Hurley had the following corrections:
o Page 1: At Approval of Agenda it should read:
MOTION by Voce; SECOND by Jones to approve the
Agenda, amended to consider item #3, selection of
Chairman and Vice Chairman, after item #7.
o Page 2: Mr. Whittenberg said there is something wrong between items
#2 and #3 and he will make that correction. Mr. Whittenberg said the
problem is, #3 is really part of #2; he will correct this based on the
Agenda itself.
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City of Seal Beach EQCB Minutes of December 2, 1998
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o Page 4, top: Acting Chairperson Hurley referenced "Motion by
McGuire; Second by Voce to approve the EQCB minutes of September
16, 1997 as amended in items 1-6" but he was quite sure it meant "by
corrections 1-6". Cross out "in items".
o Page 4, line 4: After the word "draft" it should be two "he's" not "E's".
o Page 6: Voce was the Second.
o Page 6: The following corrections were made in the middle of the
page, down 5 lines, "The drafters of volume 3 had already matched"
not "maxed".
o Page 5, lines 38-39: Page 7 must be changed to page 5 and the lines
are 38/39. "Member McGuire stated the traffic on Lampson Avenue
and on Rossmoor should be studied and addressed and if this is not
done, litigation may occur". The Board didn't do anything. Mr.
Whittenberg said that would be page 5, lines 42-44.
o Page 7, #11: Acting Chairperson Hurley's records show the Second
was by Jones, not Motion by Jones.
o Page 11, line 25: "Motion by Porter, Second by _ to forward the two
late comment letters to the Planning Commission". This is on page 11,
lines 40-41. Mr. Whittenberg suggested leaving the page references to
the draft minutes otherwise he would have to go back and change
each of the page references throughout the document. Would it be
acceptable to say "The following corrections were made on page 6
(page numbers reflect draft minutes from October 28th agenda
packet)...". Acting Chairperson Hurley agreed and requested a copy
of the changed minutes.
o Page 12, line 12: "Acting Chairperson Hurley said he was ..." Would
you make it not (sentence not finished).
o Page 14, line 8: Acting Chairperson Hurley asked for help, saying he
didn't know what this was about. Mr. Whittenberg read "The motion by
Hurley to table approval of the minutes because they did not include
the items on the Consent Calendar. Motion failed due to lack of a
Second". Then McGuire came back and Seconded the Motion. Then
there was discussion on the Motion. Acting Chairperson Hurley said
he had already fixed it on one copy and asked what should be done
with what's in the Minutes of October 28th? Mr. Whittenberg said
what's written on page 7 reflects what the Board's action was. Acting
Chairperson ,Hurley said okay, thank you.
o Page 16, line 1: re Porter abstaining. Mr. Whittenberg said that was a
Motion to continue the EQCB minutes of September 2nd and 8th until
the 28th meeting. Member Porter said the October 28th minutes show
under Board Concerns that it wasn't a Motion by Porter but a question.
Mr. Whittenberg agreed it was a question.
o Page 11: Can we find the vote? It has to show that Porter was absent.
Mr. Whittenberg said it did show Porter absent. Jones was present.
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City of Seal Beach EQCB Minutes of December 2, 1998
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o Page 12: The transcriber left out a lot of what you said quoting from
Section 6. Mr. Whittenberg said it wasn't left out intentionally, the tape
for some reason got muttered there and it couldn't be figured out what
was being said. Acting Chairperson Hurley said he remembered what
Mr. Whittenb~rg said. Acting Chairperson Hurley said:
"Section 6 said, "Based on its independent review of the above-
mentioned report" all of that goes in the first blank. After "and" you
cross out "is" and it reads "Subject to the revisions..."..
o Page 13: THe following typos need correcting. Paragraph 5, there are
two "to see's", cross one out.
o Page 13, last paragraph from the bottom, the second line from the
bottom from the left, going to take it as "is", not as "this".
o Page 13: U~ two lines it should say "they" .
MOTION CARRIED:
AYES:
ABSENT:
3 -2
Hurley, Voce, Jones
Porter, McGuire
3. Board Review - R~view of Proposed City Response Letter on "Notice of
Preparation of Draft EIR #5733 - Marine Corps Air Station EI Toro Master
Development Plan".
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Member Jones asked Mr. Whittenberg if he drafted the letter?
Mr. Whittenberg said yes, he had drafted the letter. He explained this is a
response to their Notice of Preparation and the NOP is fairly long due to the
involved nature of the woject.
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Acting Chairperson Hurley asked Member Jones if he was asking about Mr.
Whittenberg's response or was he asking is this a normal reply?
Member Jones said because the letter goes into so much detail, he wanted to
confirm that Mr. Whittenberg wrote this for the City. He was pleased with the
comments on page 11. He commented that there would definitely be an effect on
wildlife if the planes we1re taking off over that area.
Mr. Whittenberg said they would have to prepare an EIR on the creation of the
National Wildlife Refuge and discuss those issues in that document.
Member Voce said that after the NOP comes a Scoping Session for the DEIR; he
asked if the City would get notice of that Scoping Session?
Mr. Whittenberg said y~s.
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City of Seal Beach EQCB Minutes of December 2, 1998
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2 Member Voce asked if staff would notify the Council and various Boards? Any
3 comments would be m9re appropriate at that time.
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5 Mr. Whittenberg said yes.
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7 Acting Chairperson Hurley asked if they were going to try to put through this
8 Master Plan before July 1999?
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10 Mr. Whittenberg said no. The base is scheduled to close in July 1999. This EIR
11 will probably not be completed until the end of 1999 or early 2000. During that
12 period the base will most like sit as a vacant and unused facility.
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14 Member Jones asked if this were a typical response letter by the City, a location
15 that is so far removed' from the El Toro location? Do other cities go to such
16 length in their replies?
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18 Mr. Whittenberg said he didn't know what other cities do but, our City Council has
19 asked staff to follow EI Toro closely primarily because of the concern that Los
20 Alamitos could be considered an alternative site location. Each city will have its
21 own perspective.
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23 Acting Chairperson Hurley said that in this NOP, Section C, at the bottom of C-
24 12, it talks about quanti'ty of ground water and what effect it will have (it runs over
25 to C-13). They say it will have a less than significant impact, but it does not say it
26 will have no impact. Will they, or won't they, analyze it?
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28 Mr. Whittenberg said it means they probably will not analyze it.
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30 Acting Chairperson Hurley asked if the EQCB should suggest they analyze it? It
31 will be a big user of ground water. Don't they need to analyze how much more
32 ground water will be used?
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34 Mr. Whittenberg said there are certain allocated pumping rights to the ground
35 water in Orange County. You can't increase those pumping rights and the base
36 probably has an already set amount of pumping rights. Whatever the new land
37 uses would be, they would continue to have the right to pump only that amount
38 of water. If they need more, they would have to buy it elsewhere.
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40 Acting Chairperson H~rley said Mr. Whittenberg said it would be nice if they
41 listed their sources where they make these conclusions but they don't back it up
42 at all. He asked the other Board members if they also feel this is glossed over?
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44 Member Voce said his feeling was that anything affecting the aquifer should be
45 investigated. We have seven below us in Seal Beach. Recently, it was noted
46 that certain gasoline additives have an affinity to water and has now poisoned
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City of Seal Beach EQCB Minutes of December 2, 1998
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1 aquifers. Now, Santa Monica can no longer draw its own water from its
2 underground aquifers. There are other communities where people have had to
3 leave their communities due to aquifer poisoning.
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5 Acting Chairperson Hurley said there is a question of the quality of ground water.
S He would look at recharge loss.
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8 Member Voce asked if this should be done now or at the Scoping Session?
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10 Acting Chairperson Hurley said could they just dismiss this? Can they say the
11 Irvine Ranch Water District has to worry about whether the capacity can be
12 sustained?
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14 Mr. Whittenberg said it gets back to the pumping rights. State law says that as
15 part of considering a project, there has to be a letter from a water purveyor
16 indicating they have sufficient capacity to service that development. Without that
17 letter, a city cannot approve a project. The Irvine Ranch Water District has an
18 annual budget of approximately $130,000, 000 per year so they have a lot of
19 people to look at this.
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21 Regarding C-19, Acting Chairperson Hurley read "Will the proposal alter '"
22 cause any change in climate?" With all the big jets taking off shouldn't they say
23 they will affect the temperature in that region?
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25 Mr. Whittenberg said even at LAX they have never documented that.
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27 Acting Chairperson Hurley said he felt sure someone at LAX had made some
28 sort of study which could back up the statements they're making here.
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30 Mr. Whittenberg said he didn't think the City of Seal Beach, being quite far north
31 of EI Toro, needed to be concerned with the temperature/climate in that location.
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33 Acting Chairperson Hurley asked about fumes and inversion, asking specifically if
34 the inversion needs addressing?
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36 Mr. Whittenberg said, again, that is not an issue for this city to be concerned
37 about.
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39 Regarding C-20/21, Acting Chairperson Hurley said that two months after the
40 consultants "pooh-poohed" the importance of single event, noise exposure level,
41 the County is now going to use it in connection with EI Toro noise concerns. He
42 found things haven't changed in the last two months.
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44 Regarding C-22, the last paragraph, Acting Chairperson Hurley commented that
45 it's incredible. When you read the statement ... there are approximately 2.4
46 acres of coastal live oak woodland in the proposed habitat ... at EI Toro ... this
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community will not experience any adverse impacts as a result of the proposed
land uses ... ". They are being cavalier.
Acting Chairperson Hurley said they're giving a statement, which does not
support their finding of Less Than Significant Impact. It says simply "We say it
won't have a significant impact and it won't".
Acting Chairperson Hurley said the last sentence says "Please provide five
copies of the Draff' and he asked who they are for?
Mr. Whittenberg said they are for the EQCB and he should have requested six
copies.
MOTION by Voce, SECOND by Jones that the EQCB approve the document as
amended.
MOTION CARRIED:
AYES:
ABSENT:
3-2
Voce, Jones, Hurley
Porter, McGuire
STAFF CONCERNS
Mr. Whittenberg said there is no reason for the Board to meet again in December
at the regular meeting date. This should be done at the end of this meeting.
Mr. Whittenberg informed the Board that the City Council approved the Bixby
project and outlined th~ major changes.
BOARD CONCERNS
Member Voce wished everyone a good holiday season.
Acting Chairperson Hurley asked if there is a way to use the draft stamps in such
a way to allow text to b!3 seen?
Mr. Whittenberg said yes, that would be done. He explained that in the past,
people would take the document, for example a set of minutes, and say "Here,
this is what they said". The draft stamp is used to discourage that and to make it
clear the document is a draft.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION by Voce; SECOND by Jones to adjourn this meeting (7:40 p.m.) and
adjourn to the regularly scheduled January 1999 meeting date.
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MOTION CARRIED:
AYES:
ABSENT:
3-2
Voce, Jones, Hurley
Porter, McGuire
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City of Seal Beach EQCB Minutes of Decemb -r 2,1998
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Respectfully Submitted,'
an Fillmann
xecutive Secretary
Planning Department
APPROVAL:
The EQCB Minutes of Decemb~9~;.lZ~ wpre approved by
the Board on.J/.h) .2 7 19i;rV
1 These Minutes were transcribed from an audiotape of the meeting.
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