It was the third organizational meeting so they named themselves the Bodega Bay Watershed Council. They also agreed on a mission statement. “The Bodega Bay Watershed Council is dedicated to the conservation, preservation and restoration of our watershed. We welcome participation.”

Earlier in the meeting, speaker Jim Irving reported on the known progress of the proposed gravel mine on Quinlinn Creek. The group welcomed the attendance of Brian Peer, Project Manager for Dutra Materials.

Peer explained the status of the gravel quarry they hope to construct adjacent to the current, closed quarry in Cheney Gulch.

Dutra Materials operates a rock quarry in San Rafael. Since the County of Sonoma has shut down river gravel mining, construction companies have sought adequate quality rock to meet demand. Some companies, not Dutra, are importing high quality concrete aggregate from Canada. Dutra delivers construction aggregate to its Petaluma operation by barge from its San Rafael quarry.

Dutra has an option to buy the Calvi property pending exploratory drilling and testing. At this stage, Peer said, they haven’t completed testing and therefore haven’t yet formulated plans for developing the resource. He was unable to say, for example, whether the rock would be hauled out on Hwy One or along Bay Hill Road. He did say the operation would be a “drill and blast” to pulverize the gravel and then load trucks for the trip to their Petaluma operations. He said they hoped to have construction aggregate suitable to meet Sonoma County and Caltrans specifications. The rock would be used in road building and asphalt. He did not expect the rock to be of sufficient quality to be used as concrete aggregate.

Peer explained that early in the gravel pit construction a final limit of excavation would be developed. That would enable the extraction to be completed in a way to control water runoff and siltation. A plan to reclaim the pit after the 10 to 30 year life of the project would also have to be developed during the Environmental Impact Report.

Peer said that one of the most important parts of Sonoma County’s environmental review would be the scoping session prior to the research and writing of the Environmental Impact Report.

Peer would be the project manager for the Calvi property quarry. He is currently the project manager for the San Rafael Rock Quarry. He explained that he was hired by Dutra to manage the San Rafael quarry after they encountered problems because of environmental mistakes. Dutra also handled public concerns unwisely. Peer said that Dutra had fixed the problems after a long court battle.

Neighbors of the San Rafael complained and filed lawsuits after Dutra Materials bought the quarry in 1986. Though due to be closed in 1993 Dutra extended operations beyond their County and State permits. After the filing of lawsuits a Marin judge ruled that Dutra must meet the new requirements for an Environmental Impact Report. The first scoping session for that report was January 24, 2006.

The scoping session will gather commentary on environmental impacts in the quarry’s reclamation plan - a document that spells out a schedule for use of the quarry site after mining operations cease in about 2020.

The reclamation plan calls for a series of commercial and residential developments, a new marina with ferry service and some relocation of quarried materials. The marina would be created by blasting a channel from the bay to the quarry pit.

The plan also calls for mining to a depth of about 400 feet - as opposed to 200 feet specified in a 1982 reclamation plan - and for keeping mining operations going about 20 to 25 years longer than the mid-1990s time frame identified in the 1982 plan.

Norma Jellison was skeptical of Peer’s stated intention to