LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A newly formed group of concerned community members has filed suit against the county of Lake, asking that an environmental impact report be required before building projects are allowed to go forward on Rattlesnake Island.
The Friends of Rattlesnake Island filed the lawsuit in Lake County Superior Court on Friday. The document can be seen below.
The group's petition for writ of mandamus asks the court to order that the Board of Supervisors reconsider the project only after preparing an environmental impact report as required by the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
The lawsuit was filed in response to the Lake County Board of Supervisors’ decision to grant John Nady’s appeal of a May 2010 Lake County Planning Commission vote requiring him to complete a focused environmental impact report on cultural archaeological resources on the island, as Lake County News has reported.
The board voted 3-2 to uphold Nady’s appeal on Sept. 6, and followed with a 3-2 vote on Oct. 18 to approve the appeal’s findings of fact. Supervisors Anthony Farrington and Denise Rushing were the dissenters on both votes.
“When the Board of Supervisors overturned the planning commission’s unanimous decision to require an EIR for this project, it ignored the significant impacts of grading and construction on the island, which is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated historic resource,” said Sarah Ryan, environmental director of Big Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. “The county must prepare an EIR to study impacts and consider feasible mitigation measures and alternatives, and it did not.”
Nady, a Bay Area businessman who purchased the island in 2003, wants to build a residence, caretaker’s cabin and standalone bathroom on the 57-acre island, located offshore from Clearlake Oaks.
The island is sacred to the Elem Pomo, for whom it’s a cultural, religious and political center they call “Elem-Modun.” Pomo leaders have testified that the land was wrongly taken from their people and sold into private hands.
The tribe, as well as tribal members from other areas of the state, have argued before the Lake County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors that the land’s cultural and religious significance demanded the utmost consideration.
“On behalf of Elem Nation, our ancestors and the direct living descendants of Elem-Modun, and the Friends of Rattlesnake Island, I am honored to be a part of this legal case to help preserve and protect the most ancient, sacred Tribal homeland Island village of Elem-Modun, also known as Rattlesnake Island,” said Jim Brown, an Elem tribal leader who testified both before the commission and the Board of Supervisors.
In granting Nady's appeal, the majority of the supervisors decided that a mitigated negative declaration and monitoring plan would be sufficient to protect resources on the island. Nady and his team argued that only two-tenths of an acre would be affected by the project.
However, there were disagreements among some experts on the extent of the island’s cultural resources.
Dr. Thomas Gates, hired by the county to do an archaeological study of the island, told the board in an Aug. 16 hearing on the appeal that, based on 61 shovel tests he conducted, he did not believe significant archaeological finds would result from a full study.
Gates told the board at that hearing that he was “surprised” because he didn’t find more archaeological resources, such as projectile points.
At that same August hearing, Dr. John Parker, a local archaeologist who wanted a full environmental impact report to be conducted, disputed Gates’ conclusions, pointing out that Gates had not removed what materials he did find for further analysis.
Gates said the county's request for proposals didn't require or fund the removal or testing of artifacts, adding that he felt testing wasn’t necessary to make his determination about the island’s archaeological resources.
On Oct. 18, California Historic Preservation Officer Milford Wayne Donaldson wrote a letter to the Lake County Community Development Department urging that an environmental impact report be prepared for the island, which automatically was placed on the California Register of Historical Resources in 2008 after it was determined to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The island, Donaldson wrote, is the location of numerous prehistoric and historic sites, and is recognized as a significant cultural property for the Pomo for the last 6,000 years.
“Given the significance of the cultural resources on Rattlesnake Island we reiterate our recommendation that the County of Lake require an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for any projects on Rattlesnake Island,” Donaldson wrote.
Friends of Rattlesnake Island’s attorney, Susan Brandt-Hawley, argued that CEQA mandates that the county prepare an EIR if there is any “fair argument” of significant environmental impacts, even if environmental experts disagree.
“That is because the EIR is CEQA’s preferred method of environmental review,” Brandt-Hawley explained.
Friends of Rattlesnake Island said a fair argument of significant environmental impacts was provided by Lake County planning commissioners, members of the Elem Pomo Tribe, Parker and the California Office of Historic Preservation.
“CEQA is a citizen-enforced statute,” said Herb Gura, who runs the local Self Help Law Center and is assisting the Friends of Rattlesnake Island. “The law mandates an EIR process, not only for analysis of environmental impacts and mitigations, but so the public can weigh in and offer valuable information to the county. In this case, the Board of Supervisors skipped CEQA’s fundamental safeguards and approved the project prematurely.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
WRIT Friends of Rattlesnake Island v. County
101811 Office of Historic Preservation Rattlesnake Island Letter
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