New EIR available for Hinkley composting facility

BARSTOW • After months of waiting, the company behind a proposed composting facility near Hinkley may be one step closer to construction. But opponents of the project hope to get information they need to stop the facility.

A supplemental environmental impact report about the Hawes Composting Facility, which Nursery Products LLC plans to build eight miles west of Hinkley, will be available for viewing Monday. According to a notice of preparation issued March 9 by the San Bernardino County Land Use Department, the report will assess the water supply in the area, examine the feasibility of enclosing the composting facility and assess the effect of the project on global climate change.

Chris Seney, director of operations for Nursery Products, said after public comment on the supplemental EIR ends Sept. 13, pending approval by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, construction can begin as soon as November. Even though the company pays for the environmental impact report studies, Seney said the company isn’t involved in the process until the reports are ready.

“We have nothing to do with it, which is extremely frustrating,” Seney said. “It was supposed to be out initially months ago.”

Norman Diaz, who lives outside of Hinkley and is chairman of HelpHinkley.org, the group that has been fighting the proposed facility since 2007, said he will take the supplemental EIR to Sacramento, the Sierra Club, the Barstow City Council and other places to get agencies to comment on the proposed facility.

The supplemental EIR was prepared after a judge ruled in June 2008 that the original environmental impact report, prepared in 2006, did not identify the project’s water source or examine whether or not it would be feasible to enclose the facility. Seney said Nursery Products asked the county to study the greenhouse gases that may be emitted by the facility.

“We voluntarily put that one in because a lot of projects have been challenged on that,” Seney said. “On top of it I already know what the answer’s going to be: Composting is green and it reduces greenhouse gases.”

Diaz said he was initially told the supplemental EIR would be released in May. The date then got pushed back to June and then the week of July 13. Once it does come out, Diaz said he and his group will travel the state and country to find agencies willing to join them in opposing the composting facility.

“I want everyone to comment good or bad,” he said, adding that he will take the supplemental EIR to the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I want someone to tell me that this is safe. I want someone to prove to me that this is OK.”

Jim Squire, deputy director for Land Use Services, said the supplemental EIR will be posted on the Land Use Department’s Web site. Copies of the report will be available at the department’s offices in Victorville and San Bernardino as well as at the Hinkley Senior Citizens Center and the Barstow Branch Library.

Comments should be sent to Carrie Hyke, the project’s principal planner, at the Land Use Services Department, Advance Planning Division at 385 N. Arrowhead Avenue, first floor, San Bernardino, Calif., 92415-0182.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com