Kehoe wrong on Gregory Canyon
By Lael Montgomery
I am a long-time admirer of Sen. Kehoe's, have appreciated her support of policies and legislation to protect the environment, and her inclination to support clean government. I am also a community activist in North San Diego County, a member for a long time of the local Community Planning Group and its subcommittees, and actively involved in the San Diego County General Plan Update, and chair of the local Design Review Board.
In these capacities, I have observed closely and participated in the public process.
One of the most disappointing, disheartening and disturbing things that just plain citizens like myself come to understand in doing this work ---- which we do not in anticipation of a lucrative reward but with the hope of bettering our communities ---- is that multi-tentacle corporate public relations campaigns all too often succeed in trumping public interests.
It is discouraging, and painful, to watch corporate manipulation join hands with government to bring about the sacrifice of even the most pristine, environmentally sensitive, and beautiful places. Battles for backcountry places are slam-dunks for moneyed speculators with full-time PR and lobbying staffs. Places where the speculators prey are sparsely populated, and many of these battles are fought locally in the beginning.
Bake-sale pennies and nickels are no match for comparatively bottomless corporate coffers that foot the bills for big-time manipulations, such as: ballot initiatives that are indecipherable to most voters; websites that spin misinformation and spout one-sided "benefits"; glad-handed lobbyists who schmooze with decision-makers; and for campaign donations that somehow put an acceptable gloss on corporate ambitions.
I hope you can appreciate how sickening it is for community volunteers to watch endless propaganda corrupt what we want to believe is well-considered decision-making.
Who will protect the environment we share and the communities we cherish, if not our elected representatives?
It is true, in the case of the Gregory Canyon Landfill, that well-paid agents for the investors who stand to make a killing on this deal have for a long time been working the system. They've managed to put their words in the mouths of all but one San Diego County supervisor. To my profound disappointment, Sen. Kehoe, in her public statements anyway, appears to be supporting a project that seems completely at odds with her support generally of environmental protection, of sustainable development practices, of clean government, fair process, and citizen participation.
It is a mistake to characterize the manipulation of ballot initiative language as "the voice of the people." It is environmentally unsound to locate a dump in a river that threatens the public water supply for the city of Oceanside. It is a shame to destroy one the most pristine and scenic valleys in San Diego County with convoys of garbage trucks. It is an outrage to destroy what we should be preserving in order to build a dump that San Diego doesn't need.
And finally, it is ludicrous to go forward with an ill-advised project in order to secure less-than-adequate funds for road improvements that will not be necessary if the project is denied. Several hundred garbage trucks per day would require tens of millions of dollars in road improvements that the taxpayers will ultimately subsidize.
I very much hope that Sen. Kehoe will reconsider her position and stand with her colleague, Sen. Vargas, to protect the San Luis Rey River and Pauma Valley from becoming a dump site by voting in favor of Senate Bill 833.
