By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

As the Solano County permit for the current operation of the Syar Lake Herman Quarry is about to expire, expansion of the quarry is being proposed and a Draft Environmental Impact Report prepared by the county is being circulated, Benicia Principal Planner Amy Million said.

The public and agencies may comment on the report until Sept. 4, and the Benicia Sky Valley Open Space Committee, which hasn’t met for two years, will get a chance during a special meeting Aug. 21 to weigh in on the document.

“The project evaluated in this EIR, released July 22, encompasses the proposed expansion as well as the current permitted uses at the Lake Herman Quarry under the various use permits,” Million wrote in a report to the committee.

Those permits cover asphalt plants, the Portland cement concrete plant and the asphalt and concrete recycling plant, she wrote.

According to the draft EIR, the quarry, from which crushed stone, called aggregate, is extracted, is on the slopes of Sulphur Springs Mountain east of Vallejo and northeast of Lake Herman Road, east of the intersection with Columbus Parkway.

The material mined at the quarry is basalt.

The site covers about 468 acres, of which 321 are actively used as a quarry. During construction season, the site has about 93 employees, though that number varies depending on market demands.

In the past, Benicia officials have urged that expansion of the quarry shouldn’t extend into what they called “Benicia’s sphere of influence.”

In 2008, Mike Marcus, who was assistant planner at the time, wrote the County Department of Resource Management that one proposed 54-acre expansion or the requested use of a 63-acre parcel for storage would intrude into Benicia’s designated open space zoning.

“Mining operations are inconsistent with this designation,” he wrote.

He wrote that Benicia was worried about 24-hour operation, and to reduce pollution, quarry vehicles should run on biodiesel or other alternative fuel.

Marcus wrote that the city “is very concerned about the loss of species habitat for the California red-legged frog, golden eagle and callippe silverspot butterfly, and said mitigation measures for disturbing or removing habitat should take place onsite.

A year later, Damon Golubics, then principal planner, addressed a notification of preparation and scoping session for the EIR in another letter to the Department of Resource Management.

Golubics reiterated Benicia’s concern expressed earlier by Marcus, and added a paragraph that the project posed a “significant threat to existing and revenue-generating ranch operations in the Sky Valley region. Agricultural lands are a valued and protected state and county resource.”

The draft EIR said the proposed expansion of quarry operations is designed to keep producing annually its 3 million tons of saleable aggregate and aggregate product.

In addition, the document stated, the project would keep the quarry productive another 35 years and be the source of a cost-effective, high-quality aggregate for approved residential, commercial and industrial development projects as well as for public infrastructure projects.

The county’s document said aggregate is “a critical resource required to meet current and future infrastructure needs for transportation improvements.” The document said the site has been mined since the early 1870s, with commercial mining beginning in the 1940s.

The quarry’s scale of operation grew in 1965, when Syar Industries bought the quarry and installed a rock crusher with screens to manufacture specific rock sizes.

An asphalt paving material batch plant was added about three years later, and the county approved the 35-year quarry use permit and reclamation plan in 1979 so Syar could build slope gradients steeper than 2:1.

In 1994, the county approved another permit so the plant could recycle broken asphalt paving and concrete, and in 2001 the plant’s use permit and reclamation plan was amended “to reflect a revised depth of mining down to an elevation of 200 feet above mean sea level,” and to add an overburden storage area across Lake Herman Road from the quarry.

A mitigated negative declaration was adopted for that project.

The draft EIR said aggregate is used for flood protection, including sea level rise, and at public and private sites in Fairfield, Vallejo, Benicia, American Canyon and Cordelia.

It cited a state Department of Transportation letter from 2008 that said California was below the aggregate reserves it needed to address transportation and construction needs for the next 50 years. Unless changes were made, the state’s reserves would be gone by 2038, the letter stated.

The letter indicated transporting aggregate farther than 35 miles to a site had its own social, economic and environmental impacts.

The use permit application and mining and reclamation plan was submitted in 2008, in anticipation of the 2014 expiration date. This new application would expand and extend the existing quarry operations.

The county’s document said the project has “less than significant” impact on aesthetics, and no mitigation is necessary, nor would it impact farmland or other agricultural or forest resources.

It would have little or no odors or contaminants that would pollute the air, the EIR said, but during construction, fugitive dust must be reduced and basic measures must be employed to avoid violating air quality standards.

Another problem area is biology. The EIR said the project would have significant impacts on the species mentioned in the two letters from Benicia, as well as birds and the American badger. Mitigation would be required to bring that impact down to “less than significant.”

Riparian habitat or other sensitive areas also could be affected, particularly oak woodlands, native and non-native grasslands and other vegetation, and that also must be mitigated, the report said.

Federally protected wetlands also must be protected during construction, and loss of trees must be mitigated, the report said. Any damage to water quality must be mitigated, such as through a stormwater pollution prevention plan.

Changes to the Sulphur Creek Bridge design would be needed to mitigate the project’s impact to a 100-year flood hazard area, the EIR said.

The draft EIR said mitigation measures must be put in place to protect any historical, archeological, paleontological or other cultural resources, and seismic protection is needed.

The project also must mitigate possible exposure to landslides or soil instability, and traffic control procedures would be needed during construction, the EIR said.

Initially, the project would have a negative impact on emergency access, but in the long run it would improve that access, the EIR noted.

Benicia residents and others may view the draft EIR on the Solano County website, and may express their views on the document by writing Karen Avery, senior planner, Solano County Department of Resource Management, 675 Texas St., Suite 5500, Fairfield, CA 94553; by telephone at 707-784-4805; or by email at kmavery@solanocounty.com.

In other matters before the committee Aug. 21 — its continued existence.

Million wrote the panel that the City Council has considered that the committee, a special-purpose body, was formed “to pursue conservation easements and resource protection partnersip in the Sky Valley Open Space Area.”

The committee was formed in 2004, during a threat of residential development, she wrote. Since that time city staff members have sought property owner collaboration in seeking conservation easements, though few property owners have shown interest, she wrote.

Because the committee has met so seldom because of property owner disinterest, city employees recommended dissolving the panel and assigning its duties to the Planning Commission.
However, the Council told staff to let the Sky Valley Commission meet one more time so members could comment on the panel’s dissolution.

The Sky Valley Open Space Committee will meet at 7 p.m. Aug. 21 in the Benicia Community Center Program Room 2, 370 East L St.