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Butte County supervisors must act on fracking banThousands of Butte County citizens joined members of Frack-free Butte County, Butte Environmental Council and the Sierra Club to demonstrate our desire for a ban against fracking in our petition to the county last year.

Since then, numerous health, water, air, disposal, climate, transport, soil, seismic and other problems with fracking were described in letters to the editor. In April, the Butte County Board of Supervisors asked the Planning Commission staff to develop a ban; it was tighter than our own ban. Now the time has arrived for the board to sign onto the staff’s excellent ban.

I can not believe that the Butte County Department of Development Services has the audacity to come up with a plan to reduce the agricultural buffer in Butte County, and it is not just along the greenline. The proposed ordinance will allow developers to be able to ask for a reduction to the proposed agricultural setback from farming operations to as little as 25 feet.The long standing 300-foot buffer is there for a reason. It is the minimum setback that hopefully will protect the public’s health and well-being. This proposed ordinance is so outrageous that it prohibits and exempts the homeowners affected from even being able to sue for damages if they are harmed. Where are the Butte County department heads of Public Health and Services that are paid to protect and serve the health and well-being of the citizens of Butte County? They must speak out to protect the people of Butte County for generations to come.This proposed ordinance goes before the Butte County Planning Commission at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22.This proposed ordinance is a violation of the ‘public trust doctrine’.— John Scott, Butte Valley

Oroville >> The Butte County Planning Commission has delayed making a recommendation on altering how a 300-foot agricultural buffer applies in residential areas.

The county’s current rules call for the agricultural buffer to apply next to properties with agricultural use, which may include properties zoned as residential. The proposal would limit this buffer to development next to agriculturally zoned properties, although an amendment would allow people to use their residential, commercial and industrial properties an acre or larger for farming and grazing.

John Scott said the proposal was a violation of the public’s trust as eliminating the buffer could expose residents to sprayed pesticides that drift onto their properties. He said the Development Services Department was working to bring in money from development at the risk of others. “Inappropriate development should not drive this ordinance,” Scott said.

Oroville >> The Butte County Board of Supervisors has postponed action on possibly rezoning residential property in Chico’s Bell-Muir neighborhood.The board was considering whether to keep the 33 parcels north of Bell Road and west of Muir Avenue at very low density residential with a 2½-acre minimum lots or revert it back to 5-acre rural residential. The properties lie on the agricultural side of the green line, the 33-year-old boundary between urban development and farm use in the Chico area. The neighborhood may be viewed as a buffer because it is between ag land and residential properties with a 1-acre minimum size.

Robyn DiFalco of the Butte Environmental Council said very low density residential zoning is a development zoning. “It’s a direct contradiction of the principles of the green line,” DiFalco said. She raised concerns about water quality in the area and indicated smaller lots increases the probability of the land being annexed into Chico.

CHICO — Water exports and the Sacramento Valley will be the topic of a discussion tonight, 5:30-7 p.m. at the Chico Branch Library, 1103 Sherman Ave. Guest presenters include: * Ashley Indrieri, executive director of the Family Water Alliance, in Maxwell, a coalition that focuses on private property rights, agriculture, and "a balance between man and nature." * Carol Perkins, water policy advocate for Butte Environmental Council, whose mission is "to protect and defend the land, air and water of Butte County and the surrounding region."

The event is part of Code Blue, a series organized by the Butte Environmental Council to generate discussion about water issues developing in Northern California.

Put a hold on water transfers out of the area. That's the proposal being made by Tony St. Amant, a citizen who follows Sacramento Valley water closely. He's bringing the idea to the newly formed Northern Sacramento Valley Integrated Regional Water Management Group (www.nsvwaterplan.org). The regional water planning board, with members from six counties, has no authority to make rules on water transfers, St. Amant states in his letter. But it could ask water districts, including two planning transfers this year, to halt those deals until regional guidelines for water transfers are developed.

Already, the Butte Environmental Council has drafted a letter (http://goo.gl/gFU5r) to the regional planning group, urging the members to adopt St. Amant's plan.

advocacy consultant Nani Teves

Butte County General Plan, new zoning ordinances and their environmental impacts.

county representatives: Tim Snellings, director of development services, and Dan Breedon, principal planner.

An Oroville group concerned about area ground contamination has made new strides in a bid to test soil around the city for cancer-causing dioxin. The Oroville Dioxin Education Committee (ODEC), whose goal is to “educate and prepare community members, to raise awareness, and to lead the effort to safeguard our community against dioxin,” recently received $3,000 in grants from The Rose Foundation, an Oakland-based organization concerned with environmental health issues.

Don Rust, Oroville planning and development services director, said he has met with representatives from the Butte Environmental Council—which formed ODEC last year—to talk about the grants, but warned they may not meet ODEC’s needs. “It can’t go to dioxin testing,” he said. “It goes to brownfield assessment. Basically this is for people to volunteer to help clear their properties so they can be developed.”

Mark Stemen, a Chico State professor and president of the BEC board of directors, offered an analogy comparing the EPA grants with those from the Rose Foundation. “BEC’s grant allows them to look for the needle in the haystack,” he said. “Oroville’s grant helps them build a new barn for the haystack.”

The activist group Move the Junkyard was formed in January 2015, shortly after the City Council directed planning department staff to develop a process for CSM to stay in south Chico. The group is allied with the Butte Environmental Council, which has long supported the Chapman/Mulberry Neighborhood Plan and CSM’s amortization.

During an interview several days prior to the Planning Commission’s meeting, Move the Junkyard member Ory and Mark Stemen, chairman of BEC’s board of directors, were certain the commission would reject CSM’s new development agreement. “I think CSM has done a very effective job playing on heartstrings and emotional issues that affect [city] councils, but I think they’ll come up against the Planning Commission and see that’s not what it’s about,” Stemen said.

aying on heartstrings and emotional issues that affect [city] councils, but I think they’ll come up against the Planning Commission and see that’s not what it’s about,” Stemen said