BEC Members - PreservationPartners

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Non Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage PAID
Permit No. 118
Chico, CA 95928
nv
116 W. Second St., Suite 3
Chico, CA 95928
(530) 891-6424
C E L E B R AT I N G
B u tte E
Butte Environmental Council
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
membergram
October/November 2011
It’s BEC’s Birthday Bash!
It’s that time of year again--the leaves are falling, the ducks are quacking as they head south in the increasingly early
darkness...Nature is winding down and we are working hard, anticipating the winter holidays as a time to rest. Even in the
midst of our busy Fall work, we need to celebrate our community and each other--so kick up your heels at Butte Environmental Council’s Birthday Bash and Silent Auction!
The NEW date is Thursday, October 27th at 5:30; it runs until 9:00. The Birthday Bash will be at a NEW location this
year--the Arc Pavilion at 2020 Park Ave. We will have a delicious catered dinner from Woody Guzetti, great live music
by Dylan’s Dharma, Aubrey Debauchery & Mandalyn May, and a silent auction with all kinds of interesting & useful items
from local businesses. What a painless way to get friends and family gifts for the holidays while supporting a worthy local
non-profit! And get something special for yourself while you’re at it, because we’ve all been working hard.
BEC Birthday BASH
Thursday, October 27th
5:30 - 9:00pm
$25 dual
ivi
Ind
ARC Pavilion
(2020 Park Ave Chico, CA)
$45
Cou
ple
Dear BEC Members,
We want to thank all of our BEC members and angels for their generous donations and contribution to the
progression of our organization. With members like you,
we are able to provide Butte and surrounding counties
educational information regarding the environment and
social responsibility, while protecting our earth’s natural
resources and educating the public on the importance of
sustainable living.
We have had an outstanding year so far with a success-
ful Endangered Species Faire, the Park & Creeks Cleanup,
continuation of our California Wellness Foundation grant
work on alternatives to toxics and numerous tabling opportunities passing out informative literature. We also had
closure on our three-year long legal battle with the State
of California over the need for environmental reviews when
proposing water transfers under the State’s Drought Water
Bank (DWB). This summer, the parties were able to agree
on final settlement terms following our court victory last
spring.
We currently have two Chico State interns, Alex & Sarah,
who have been wonderful additions to the BEC team.
We look forward to celebrating our successes with you
at the 36th Birthday Bash to be held Thursday October 27,
2011. Please join us!
We’d like to express how much BEC appreciates all those
who have been a part of our success. We could not do it
without the continued support from all the wonderful, caring
people in our community. Thanks for lending your voice to
the voiceless: our precious environment.
116 W 2nd St, Ste 3, Chico, CA 95928
(530) 891-6424 www.becnet.org Office Hours: M, T, Th 10:00-5:00 & W 10:00 to 3:30
Butte Environmental Council
WOW! Thank you Annie B’s, and all of you who
leveraged your donations this way.
A special thank you to our Angels and members
who gave through Annie B’s. Your creativity and
desire to help locally are truly wonderful!
•
•
•
Donations from members and the community totaled $3,403.49
The additional money from Annie B’s/
North Valley Community Foundation was
8%, or $272.28
For a grand total of $3675.77
The Annie B’s totals are in, and they reflect
the continuing dedication and generosity
of our supporters.
Annie B’s Giving:
Thank You!
Our earth is still
threatened and fragile.
Please become an Angel to the land
that is our home and our children’s future.
• Every single Angel donation allows us to spend
more time leading the effort to protect our region’s
wildlands by insisting on sustainable
planning and forestry practices, urban growth
boundaries, surface and ground water protection,
increased public transportation, and clean air and water.
• BEC’s Angels are the lifeblood of our organization!
Angels are members that replace their annual donations
with monthly or quarterly contributions.
The earth gives us so much.
Help us give back.
Join the BEC Angels
From the Board
By Mark Stemen, Board Chairman
While BEC has long been engaged in struggles to protect
the land air and water, this summer saw BEC struggle as an
organization when declining revenue forced the Board to
lay off two valuable directors. Adversity can bring forth new
strength, and our members responded to the challenge this
past election. For the first time in a long while, BEC has a
full, nine-member Board of Directors. Joining John Scott,
Crystal Durham and Mark Stemen (Chair), are new board
members Amanda Freeman, Carolyn Scott (Secretary),
Dave Garcia, Grace Marvin, and Michael McGinnis (Treasurer). Working together, the new BOD hopes to quickly
address the leadership vacuum.
Members have asked how else they can help.
We strongly encourage anyone interested in a particular issue or with fundraising to join the advocacy or
development committee.
The committees meet once a month. Contact the BEC
office for times and dates of the meetings.
2011 Park & Creeks Cleanup
BEC’s annual cleanup fell on a beautiful day this year. Two
hundred and seventy-two volunteers turned out and together we pulled over 2 ½ tons of garbage and recycling
out of the creeks! Of the total 5,332 pounds of material that
we picked up from the park and creeks, 3,400 of it was
trash; 1,394 pounds was recyclables (cardboard, glass,
plastic, etc.), and 538 pounds was scrap metal. To leave
this garbage in the creek when the rains start can seriously
impact the riparian environment, especially when hazardous materials like spray paint or car care products are left
in the creeks—yes, we found all that stuff, and more.
We would like to thank some key people who worked hard
alongside us to make the Cleanup a success; Mark Gailey,
Ken McDonald and the CCCs, Casey Courtney, OJ and
Gene Anna MacMillan, and the City of Chico staff, to name
but a few. A huge and special thank-you to Wakefield &
Sons (and Daughter!) Glass, for taking a leap of faith and
letting us use their parking lot for our South Side staging location. Check out their website www.wakefieldglass.com
and see WIllard and Milton’s original store, circa 1936!
185 Humboldt Ave, Chico
Wellness
Nou Vang, a BEC volunteer and student at CSU Chico,
tabled with Wellness staff at the Hmong New Year on
October 1st. It was the second year that BEC has had a
table at the New Year Celebration and it is awesome!
We are always looking for new ways to engage and
serve more of our community, as well as strengthen
our current connections. If you’re interested in finding
out more about our Wellness workshops, call the office
at 891-6424 or email staff@becprotects.org; put “Wellness” in the subject line.
Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks
Cleanup
Total Garbage & Recyclables Picked Up
on September 17th, 2011
Trash:
3,400 lbs.
Scrap Metal:
538 lbs.
Glass:
~ 780 pounds
Aluminum:
36 pounds
Cardboard:
~ 350 pounds
Mixed Plastic:
95 pounds
Tin & other small
150 pounds
metal:
Total Debris
2.6 Tons!
Now Accepting E-Waste for Recycling!
Dioxin Testing Reveals Wide Range
of Contamination
By Mary Muchowski, BEC Staff
Preliminary results indicate that dioxin levels are still high
in some areas of south Oroville 24 years after the large
fire at the Koppers Wood Treatment Facility.
The Environmental Health Investigations Branch (EHIB)
of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
conducted dioxin tests on backyard chicken eggs in 1988
and 1994, triggering an advisory against eating eggs from
free-range chickens in the south Oroville area. The Butte
Environmental Council (BEC) initiated the testing of backyard chicken eggs funded by a grant from The California
Wellness Foundation after learning that the CDPH did not
intend to conduct any follow-up testing.
Although the geometric mean of dioxin levels has gone
down from 2.2 ppt (parts per trillion) after the 1988/1994
tests to 0.616 ppt (2005 WHO TEQ) in July 2011, the
range was between 0.004 ppt and 14.7 ppt (compared
to 0.62 ppt to 18 ppt in the earlier testing). There is no
set limit for the amount of dioxin allowed in chicken eggs;
but the United States government has pulled commercial
eggs off of the shelves at 1.0 ppt and the European Union
has set the maximum allowable level at 0.33 ppt.
This first round of testing conducted by BEC was a
small sample size of only seven tests from 6 sites within
a 1.25 mile buffer of the Koppers Superfund Site.
Advocacy
BEC has been active during the County’s process
of updating its Surface Mining and Reclamation Ordinance. Butte County currently has 22 permitted
mines, 4 metal ore and 18 aggregate mines – 16 of
the later process historic dredger tailings. The smallest operation is approximately 3 acres in size and the
largest disturbs an area of approximately 122 acres.
Companies based outside the county operate twelve
of the mines.
Many of us are familiar with the recent New Era
Mine debacle, due to the negligent vote of approval
by two of our current Supervisors. Many of us have
forgotten or never knew about the problems at Carr
Mine near Philbrook Lake in the 70’s and 80’s; the
mine was finally closed in the mid 90’s due to environmental concerns that were not mitigated or abated. To
our knowledge, the County has never collected a fine
from mine operators who have broken many of the
laws pursuant to the State Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) or who have committed acts that
result in environmental degradation.
At the end of September, the County approved
a Negative Declaration (Neg Dec) for the ordinance
update initial study performed under CEQA. The Neg
Dec asserts that no physical activities are associated
with the update that could result in a direct or indi-
Shamo Chickens in South Oroville
With the wide range of dioxin levels, we plan to test within
a larger buffer distance from Koppers. The next round of
testing may include some soil tests as well as more chicken
egg tests.
The prohibitive cost of testing eggs and soil for dioxins
(which includes 17 different compounds) limits the amount
of tests we can afford, so we will be weighing several different options, hoping to increase our knowledge with the
limited funds we have left. We have been in contact with
EHIB and one of their scientists who conducted the first two
studies, and we will be consulting with them before we decide what our next steps will be. We will keep our members
updated as we proceed.
rect impact on the environment. The ordinance itself
went back to Staff for further revisions. BEC hopes
to see early notification of all entities in a watershed
that may potentially be impacted by a mining operation; open and transparent procedures surrounding all
mining operations throughout the life of a permit; better cost estimates for reclamation bonds; and stronger
enforcement against operators who break any law or
regulation pursuant to SMARA and the County ordinance. The County’s Department of Development Services has done a commendable job during this effort,
listening and responding to comments and input from
BEC as well as concerned citizens.
Don’t Get Depressed - Get Active!
Together we can have a bigger impact. Join BEC’s
Advocacy Committee and learn how to help us
create sustainable community that will protect our
environment. Don’t have time for meetings? Join
BEC’s Action Alerts -- send us your email address
and ask to be added.
Call us at 891-6424 or email us at
staff@becprotects.org;
put “Action Alerts” in the subject line.