Wednesday, July 20 at 5PM
Sisson School Gym
601 E. Alma Street, Mt. Shasta.

The scoping meeting provides the opportunity for interested agencies and the public to provide oral comments on the scope of the EIR. It's important that the County and Crystal Geyser sees how much this means to our community.

It is important that the County hears all of our concerns about this plant!  Put in your own words all the issues you think may be environmentally significant about the Crystal Geyser’s plant.  Are you concerned about water usage, drought, effects on local wells and aquifer, noise, traffic, plastic pollution, effects on the local waste treatment plant and leach field, night sky lighting, local economic effects, effects on neighbors, or some other issue?  Put it all in a letter and/or email and send it to the County by July 25.  Attend the public scoping meeting and speak to the issues that concern you!

After the public comment period, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process will then have the County to prepare a Draft EIR to present to the public for review and comment.  Once the draft EIR is presented we will need to comment on the errors and omissions of the draft before a final EIR is sent to the County for approval.  You can see the County information page on the Crystal Geyser project HERE.

To learn more about preparing good scoping comments see this Help for CEQA commenting article by the Sierra Club.  Another informational article from the “Fremontia” newsletter is HERE.

W.A.T.E.R. has many concerns about the process so far.  The NOP does not identify the expected severity or estimated impact of the different possible environmental issues.  There is no Initial Study, which is expected either before or with a NOP.  The County only provides a standard laundry list of expected effects.  The project description is vague about one of the most severe issues: how will industrial waste be treated and disposed.  The NOP describes FOUR different possibilities.  Each of these entails a very different process and outcome.  One of the options put forward entails building a NEW waste treatment plant ON SITE and then dumping the treated wastewater into our aquifer.  We want Siskiyou County and the Regional Water Quality Control Board to follow the State mandate for clean water and anti-degradation and insist that the industrial wastewater go to the nearby Mt. Shasta City wastewater treatment plant.

We must ensure that all issues and environmental concerns are addressed and studied carefully. Your comments to the County can make a difference.