"disrobe the cover up"

for L A Wood
Berkeley Blues
by Randy Fingland
CC Marimbo 2009
this city is split down the middle
by the route of Strawberry Creek
much the same as St. Louis is
separated from East St. Louis
by the mighty Mississippi
even though in Berkeley
the current which varies
from rage to trickle
year round too
is buried beauty
under beastly concrete
& asphalt without exposure
to the atmosphere or eye

Pacific Steel Casting - Berkeley Synthetic Minor Operating Permit Revisions BAAQMD Public Meeting

ALSO SEE> www Berkeley Air Monitor

 Berkeley Air Monitor

Public Testimony: L A Wood, Berkeley Citizien
December 14, 2016

The mission statement of the Air District claims it, and I quote, “aims to create a healthy breathing environment for every Bay Area resident while protecting and improving public health, air quality, and the global climate.” However, the district’s permitting practices for west Berkeley’s largest polluter, Pacific Steel Casting, have taken a much lower aim

Over the last 15 years, our community has been in a heated conflict with the Air District over their lack of accountability to the large increases in PSC's metal and chemical emissions and the persistent odors. Also in conflict has been the total lack of public transparency especially as it relates to the district’s permitting practices and the PSC's Synthetic Minor Operating Permit compliance.

 

In 2005 there was a demand from the court for the air district to consolidate PSC's permits and emission inventories as required by law. This is only being considered now and only because of public outrage. This is why we are here tonight.

 

The legal failure to consolidate PSC’s SMOP permits can be explained, in part, by a political climate that has existed at the district for more than a dozen years that coincides with the current term of district APCO Broadbent and our now former Berkeley mayor and BAAQMD board member, Tom Bates.

 

Thus far, there has been no acknowledgement from the district regarding SMOP compliance or the air district’s preferential treatment of this west Berkeley company. This betrayal of the public trust helped shape the extreme changes seen in the last decade in west Berkeley developments, use permits, abuses of CEQA, and all at the expense of local air quality and health protections for residents. <READ MORE>

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