PUBLIC COMMENTS ON VALERO CRUDE BY RAIL – 2015

Documents are listed most recent at top.

Public Comments on the RDEIR (period closed on October 31, 2015)

• An important letter from Fire Chief John Heilmann, writing on behalf of the City of West Sacramento (pages 2-10).  The letter strongly endorses the Sacramento Area Council of Governments’ October 30 critique of the RDEIR. 
• 86 identical CREDO-generated letters from individuals far and wide (including 3 from Benicians), “Reject Valero’s dangerous oil trains project.”  These 86 can be added to 1976 such letters received previously, for a total of 2,062.  There is WIDESPREAD and growing opposition to Valero’s dangerous and dirty proposal and to oil transport by rail in general.
• 3  identical VALERO-generated letters (2 from Benicians), “I support the Valero Crude by Rail project.”  These 3 can be added to 133 such letters received previously, for a total of 136.  Nearly half of these are from Benicians, no doubt primarily Valero employees, their families and friends.

• • Public Comments October 24- October 30, 2015 Part 1
  • Public Comments October 24- October 30, 2015 Part 2
  • Public Comments October 24- October 30, 2015 Part 3
  • Public Comments October 24- October 30, 2015 Part 4 The following PDF documents posted by the City of Benicia on 12/4/15 show identical comments submitted as part of the Revised DEIR and “referenced” in “Public Comments October 24- October 30, 2015 Part 4,” above.  These letters were LISTED but not included in the above document.  These new documents are image-based PDFs, thus NOT text-searchable (but I have created a set of searchable docs – if you are interested, write me at rogrmail at gmail dot com).
    • Identical Comments – “Protect our communities and deny Valero’s Rail Project” (Centers for Biological Diversity) 149 letters, including 35 from Benicians
    • Identical Comments – “Reject Valero’s dangerous oil train project” (CREDO Action) Part 1, 654 letters, including 10 from Benicians
    • Identical Comments – “Reject Valero’s dangerous oil train project” (CREDO Action) Part 2, 564 letters, including 8 from Benicians
    • Identical Comments – “Reject Valero’s dangerous oil train project” (CREDO Action) Part 3, 697 letters including 38 from Benicians
    • Identical Comments – “I Support the Valero Crude By Rail Project” (VALERO) 133 letters including 63 from Benicians

INDEX TO PARTS 1 – 4The City of Benicia’s comment pages do not make it easy to find a letter from a particular agency, organization or individual. The only “index” provided is at the beginning of Part 1, and it does not show page numbers or Part numbers. CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE OR HERE FOR A ONE-PAGE INDEX (PDF download).

• Supplemental Documents for NRDC Comment on RDIER
  • NDRC Part 1
  • NDRC Part 2
  • NDRC Part 3
  • NDRC Part 4
• Expert letters submitted at deadline, critical of Valero Crude by Rail
  • Expert attorneys representing

– Natural Resources Defense Council
– Communities for a Better Environment
– San Francisco Baykeeper
– Center for Biological Diversity
– Sierra Club
… and others

• • Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community
  • Lynne Nittler and others from Davis, CA
  • Dr. Fred Millar, railroad consultant
  • Charles Davidson of Hercules, CA
  • Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast of Benicia, CA
  • A flurry of exceptional – and very personal – letters opposing Valero Crude By Rail
• Public Comments October 17- October 23, 2015 6.3MB, 217 pages.  Includes important letters from the Sacramento Metro Air District and the City of Truckee, CA.  A notice from California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (pp. 8-10) indicates erroneously that “The review period closed on October 14, 2015, and no state agencies submitted comments by that date. This letter acknowledges that you have complied with the State Clearinghouse review requirements for draft environmental documents, pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act.”  The deadline was extended to October 30, and this certification will no doubt need to be withdrawn and perhaps resubmitted.
• Public Comments October 10- October 16, 2015 Part 1 8.5MB, 200 pages, including the index to Parts 1-4, and important letters by the Shasta County Air Quality Management District (p. 18), the City of Albany, CA (p. 19), and the City of Biggs, CA (p. 25, note Biggs NOT Briggs, CA)
• Public Comments October 10- October 16, 2015 Part 2 9.5MB, 230 pages
• Public Comments October 10- October 16, 2015 Part 3 9.7MB, 235 pages
• Public Comments October 10- October 16, 2015 Part 4  6.0MB, 106 pages.
  NOTE:  These pages do not make it easy to find a letter from a particular individual.  The only “index” provided is at the beginning of Part 1, and it does not show page numbers or Part numbers.   You will have to SEARCH on a name in Part 1, then guess in which Part that person’s letter will appear.  You may approximate like this: the index of commenters’ names comprises the first 17 pages of Part 1.  If your commenter’s name appears on page 1-4 of the index (top of Part 1), then the letter is likely lower in Part 1.  Pages 5-9 in the index show names of commenters whose letters mostly appear in Part 2.  Pages 10-14 of the index refer to letters in Part 3.  The remainder, pages 15-17 in the index, are in Part 4.
• Public Comments October 3-9, 2015 The link will download a 20-page document from the City’s website, a 1.1MB download, including a very interesting letter from the City of Gridley, California (pp. 2-5 in the PDF).
• Public Comments September 26-October 2, 2015 The link will download a 297-page document from the City’s website, an 11MB download.  Most of this is letters generated by the ForestEthics online comment generator.   (See also the Center for Biological Diversity online letter generator.)  Such support from EVERYWHERE is amazing and welcome!  To find individual letters of support or opposition, just open the PDF and search on a name.
• Public Comments August 31-September 25, 2015 – A 546-page PDF.  The link will download a document on the City’s website, a 20mb download.  The PDF consists of:
  • 2 agency requests for extension of the comment period
  • 6 personal letters opposing the RDEIR and Valero’s proposal
  • 2 personal letters supporting the RDEIR and Valero
  • 253 letters from individuals from all over the country, generated by an online submittal form and mostly alike, also opposing the RDEIR and Valero’s proposal and received by the City on 9/25/15

Public Comments on the DEIR (period closed on September 15, 2014)

• Public Comments December 16, 2014-August 28, 2015  (This 9.8 MB 227-page document appeared on the City’s website on an undetermined date; I am posting it here after the fact on 2015-11-12.  Note also that the City displayed a link to this document with a typo, showing a wrong date, “December 16, 2015” rather than “2014“.    The document is indexed and arranged rather oddly, and includes without attribution a number of documents, including the US Department of Transportation’s “Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis – Hazardous Materials: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains; Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” dated July, 2014 [pp. 21-226].  I am assuming that the unattributed documents were included in the record at the request of Planning Commissioner Steve Young, because his name shows up in the index on p. 1 and nowhere else.  – RS)