Silicon Valley Foundation for a Better Environment (SVFBE), a nonprofit organization has been founded. The organization’s mission is to stop the Newby landfill expansion, fight for clean air and water, for better environment, better communities, better schools. If you support our mission, please donate or join our efforts.
Thanks for your support!
Jennifer Strohfus
All posts by Milpitas
Update on Assembly Bill AB 385
Dear Fellow citizens, On Wednesday July 15, 8 of us went to Sacramento to voice our support for the Assembly Bill AB 385, created by Assemblyman Kansen Chu of District 25.
It was a whole day meeting of bill hearings by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, one bill after another, with no break. The committee members brought food and ate while they listened. Our bill was discussed at about 1:00 pm. In the rather small hearing room, about the size of a classroom, Kansen Chu stated the proposed bill, along with the support of City of Milpitas’s Director of Public Works and a Fremont Council woman. Then 7 of us from the community took turns to speak in support of the bill. After that, the committee chair, Senator Bob Weickowski warmly invited Republic Services’s Don Litchfield and other two men representing three other businesses to take the seats and spoke against the bill. Litchfield gave a prepared statement, quoting the reduced odor complaint numbers from BAAQMD,as proof that the South Bay Odor Stakeholder Group that they started is making changes to the odor situation. At the end, Senator Bob Weickowski of the 10th District (from San Leandro, Castro Valley to Santa Clara) explained his vote against the bill, stating that the existing odor group would suffice the purpose of the proposed committee. Then the hearing was over for this bill.
Litchfield disclosed that the South Bay Odor Stakeholder Group will be meeting on July 30 at 7:00 pm, at the Beverley Heritage Hotel in Milpitas. It will be a Thursday, and the hotel is at corner 880 and Montague Express Way. Please make an attempt to attend.
During the 3 hours of wait, a few of us outside the hearing room were invited by Kansen Chu to his office, where we learned a few things about how things work in the State capitol, or any political arena. Everything centers around votes. In order to get more votes, the politicians look at the registered voters, the final votes cast, and they segment these data into racial groups, and weigh the opinion from each group according to their number of votes cast in the immediate past. The Chinese, unfortunately, have pretty low vote counts – population in the tens of thousands, registered voters in the thousands, yet actual votes only in the hundreds (according to Kansen’s assistant Daisy). The Vietnamese, on the other hand, had 4,000 registered voters, and about the same number of final votes were counted. As a result, the Vietnamese group’s opinions are much valued now by our local politician.
We would like to point out that a committee member mentioned “there is always next year”. Kansen Chu’s term ends in 2016. Bob Weickowski’s term ends in 2018. Be sure to come out and cast your vote at every election.
The bill was not passed. However, we learned some valuable lessons, which may shed light on how we continue our fight. The odor stakeholder group has not informed the public about their meetings before. Now it has, and we will want to show up at that meeting, especially when it’s just a short drive away.
Date: 7/30/2015, Thursday
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Beverly Heritage Hotel, 1820 Barber Ln, Milpitas, CA 95035
We will be posting any changes to the time and location of this meeting as we hear more about it. Make an effort to go, be informed about what is going on and think about how we can make it better.
Thank you very much for your continued support. Let’s keep working to improve our environment.
Best,
-Robyn
July 15th Public Hearing on AB 385
The Public hearing on AB 385 will be held on July 15th at 9:30am. Room 3191, Sacramento Capitol (1315 10th St. Sacramento, CA). Carpool is available, please contact jenniferstrohfus@gmail.com to coordinate.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/fa…/billTextClient.xhtml…
Jennifer’s post on weibdb:
Assembly bill gives voice to residents who live near landfill – San Jose Mercury News
Kansen Chu, “I have long been a proponent of allowing residents the opportunity to express their concerns about issues of major importance in a public forum.”
Source: Assembly bill gives voice to residents who live near landfill – San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Planning commission Meeting, 6:30pm Weds, Jun 24
Proposal for the new odor study on the Newby Island Landfill expansion will be presented.
Location: San Jose City Hall
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm
Address: 200 E Santa Clara St, San Jose, CA 95113
View the video achieve of this meeting:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=1764
An excellent summary of June 24’s San Jose Planning Committee Meeting from Robyn.
———————————————————————————-
Dear Friends and Neighbours,
Today’s meeting was relatively short. Public hearing session started at 6:30 pm, and was over by 7:30 pm for our item.
The topic was focused on the upcoming odor study. We requested for a minimum two year duration of the study, unbiased data collection, and demanded for monthly data release during the course of the study.
Republic Services’ Don Litchfield spoke at the end, agreeing to
cooperate.
Looks like the committee is looking more to BAAQMD for technical
advice, which is a good thing. We also asked the committee not to make a decision until comprehensive studies of air, water and soil are complete and clean.
The next meeting is scheduled for 8/26. Wednesday. In the meantime, please continue to email to the committee members and other authorities to voice your opinion. Our voice will be not be ignored.
Thanks very much for your continued support.
Best Regards,
-Robyn
Odor Group Weekly Meeting, Fri June 5th
Please come to the weekly meeting on Friday 7PM . You are invited!
Location: Milpitas Police Dept Community Room
Address: 1275 N Milptias Blvd, Milpitas
Mobile Web – News – Milpitas’ contracted landfill lawyers get another extension
An Oakland law firm’s contract with City of Milpitas has been enhanced once again to deal with odor issues the city claims largely emanate from the Newby Island Landfill and Resource Recovery Park at 1601 Dixon Landing Road in San Jose.
Odor Group Weekly Meeting 7pm, Fri May 29th
Please come to the weekly meeting on Friday 7PM . You are invited!
Location: Milpitas Police Dept Community Room
Address: 1275 N Milptias Blvd, Milpitas
Meeting agenda:
1. Prepare and launch an email campaign
A) draft sample letters
B) gather email addresses
2. Prepare for June 24th SJ planning committee meeting
A) establish our stance of pushing new Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
B) request for old EIR for study
C) discuss on how to spread out the meeting info， how many people need to attend the meeting
D) if public hearing is open to us, how do we deliver our message?
3. Prepare for the meeting with city of Milpitas and BAAQMD
4. finalize the paper work for our non-profit organization
苗必达反垃圾场扩容取得“阶段性胜利”
5月6日（周三）晚，圣荷西城市规划委员会对纽比垃圾场的扩容申请再次做出延期投票决定。苗必达居民周石群女士对这一结果表示接受，她称：“这是反对扩容的一个阶段性胜利。”苗必达市城市经理威廉姆斯(ThomasC.Williams)认为：“这是苗必达市民持续反对的声音起到了作用。”纽比垃圾场代表利奇菲尔德（Don Litchfield）则坦言对结果“很吃惊”。 – 新闻
Source: 苗必达反垃圾场扩容取得“阶段性胜利”
Milpitas Post editorial: Debates, meetings about odor sources continue
Milpitas has been battling to curb the odor producing sources on its western border for many years. However, its legal protest to a go-ahead to raising the landfill height at Newby Island to the size of a 20-story building seems to have resonated in the ears of the San Jose Planning Commission. Last week the commission voted unanimously to delay any action permitting the expansion until it conducts an independent study of the problem.
Source: Milpitas Post editorial: Debates, meetings about odor sources continue