Month: August 2012

Does Jane Dumas Know Cogentrix is Trying to Ruin Mission Trails?

Jane Dumas is a respected Kumeyaay elder who was honored on April 28th by having a day named after her at Mission Trails Regional Park.  Kumeyaay is Jane’s first language and she remains one of the last living fluent speakers of the Kumeyaay language in the world.  And she has spent the last 60 years of her life educating people about Kumeyaay history and culture.

After I came across this heart-warming story about Jane Dumas Day, and learned about all she has done in support of Mission Trails Regional Park, I wondered if she had been apprised of the fact that Cogentrix and Sempra Energy are trying to ruin Mission Trails by placing their unsightly, noisy power plant right next to the Equestrian Center, just north of Kumeyaay Lake.

What I have appreciated about various tribes, after having studied their history for the last 45 years of my life, and contributing to various American Indian charities, is that their spirituality is rooted in Nature.  Does anyone remember the commercial featuring an Indian man weeping at the sight of pollution in the river?  I am afraid that Jane Dumas will have a reaction very similar to that, when someone informs her of what is happening now, just a few months after the day she was honored at her beloved park.

“. . . WHEREAS, Jane Dumas was inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and is recognized as the catalyst for Mission Trails Regional Park acquiring a Kumeyaay-Diegueño Nation flag to fly proudly at the Kumeyaay Lake and Campground in her honor from here on out; AND

WHEREAS, Jane continues to share her expertise in medicinal plants by teaching Ethnobotany classes at Sycuan’s Kumeyaay Community College.  It is her hope that the knowledge and traditions of her people will continue to be passed down from generation to generation and never be forgotten; NOW THEREFORE. . . “

. . . Jane Dumas we need you to stand with us now as we struggle to save Mission Trails Regional Park.

Related articles

Rally Reminder – Sat. 8/18 4-6pm Tierrasanta, Join the Fight!

Our beautiful park and healthy communities are worth saving!

Rally Tierrasanta citizens to learn about and help stop the ill-conceived siting of a fossil fuel gas power plant in a high fire-hazard zone near their park and community. Join Save Mission Trails volunteers at the intersection of Santo Rd. and Clairemont Mesa Blvd. from 4-6:00 PM in Tierrasanta, Saturday, August 18. Bring a sign (or borrow one of ours) and wear something orange!

Then from 6-9:00 pm join us at Tierrasanta’s Concert in the Park, ”Y3K” 80s Rock n’ Roll, at the Tierrasanta Recreation Center at 11220 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. Support a great cause and have some fun too!

You Can Help Prevent This From Becoming a Reality

Mission Trails

This post includes a gallery of the proposed power plant. The ten photos were taken in Mission Trails Regional Park from multiple points of view. Most of the images show it spewing toxic pollutants from its eleven 100-foot towers – as it would be seen from the park on days of operation.  Not included are graded hills, additional electrical towers and wires, other structures, and roads.

We believe these images are realistic and demonstrate the visual impact the Quail Brush Power Plant will have on our park and communities. The power plant was rendered to scale using Google’s 3D rendering program. The towers’ emissions were rendered in Photoshop.

This gallery clearly demonstrates the land next to the park is the wrong place to build and operate a power plant. I hope these images find you equally disgusted by the impact it has on our park. The images were taken from the following:

  • the Equestrian Staging Area and picnic area
  • the San Diego River and watershed
  • Kumeyaay Lake and riparian area bird sanctuary
  • a park bench
  • Kumeyaay Lake
  • the Kumeyaay Campground entrance
  • park trails
  • Fr. Junipero Serra Trail and the historical dam

On a personal note: I find the name “Quail Brush” offensive. I don’t think a single quail will want to be anywhere near the bulldozed hills, or the noisy, toxic, fire-hazard power plant. I recommend we call it the “Quail Smushed – Burned Brush Power Plant.” This is more fitting.

Click on a gallery image and
Click to see what you can do:

Below is the Helsinki, Helsingin Energia gas power plant. It shows emissions and pollutants being released.
Vuosaari gas power plant

Quail Brush will create toxic gas and spew pollution all over Santee, Tierrasanta, Navajo and other communities within a 15 – 20 mile radius.

This summary of plant emissions equals 43% of actual emissions, equal to 204.84 tons of pollution per year. This data was provided within their project proposal. However, it will be more than doubled if the plant runs at full capacity.

“Our Prayer for Mission Trails” – A Poem by Bonnie Jean Flach

 

Come along with me
let’s have a talk
about the land of the
coyote and the hawk
let’s soak it in
as along we walk
We say our prayers
and ask God to grant
this land to be
forever free with
no polluting
power plant

by bonnie jean flach
copyrighted – all rights reserved

Game On! CoGentrix Appeals – What You Can Do Now

As expected, CoGentrix has appealed the Planning Commission’s Denial to Initiate an Amendment of the City’s General Plan and East Elliott Community Plan. The appeal was submitted to the San Diego City Council on August 2, 2012. Touting the power plant’s purported “energy, economic, and environmental benefits,” CoGentrix is asking S.D. City Council to approve initiation of the Plan Amendments to “allow for the development and operation of the proposed Project.”

Click to see what you can do

We say, “Benefits for whom?”  It’s CERTAINLY NOT beneficial to the local communities, Tierrasanta, Navajo, El Cajon, La Mesa, and especially Santee, who will suffer worse air quality and subsequent health issues, decreased property values and ensuing reduced tax income for local governments, noise pollution, visual blight, and diminished civic pride. It’s NOT beneficial to the citizens of San Diego who value the region’s gem, Mission Trails, and show off its impressive views and open spaces to our out-of-state friends. NOT to the park users out getting exercise and enjoying some respite from urbanity nor for the scouts on campouts, moms and dads walking with strollers, hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians. NOT beneficial to the area’s indigenous, and some endangered, plants and animals and the San Diego River watershed. And NOT for the SDG&E ratepayers who will pay the $600 million cost of the plant, per the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Energy benefits? We prefer conservation, energy efficiency, rooftop solar in our sun-drenched communities, grid-scale clean energy storage technology, and other forward-thinking solutions for reliable energy – which by the way, we already have and is NOT threatened, even with the possible permanent closure of San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, per the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

We say don’t open the door for re-zoning this precious Open Space to Industrial, especially for a natural gas power plant in a high fire hazard area. Let’s all do what we can to protect this special area and keep our communities safe:

While San Diego City Council is at recess for the month of August, we are NOT! 

Thanks for everything you do!