Santa Barbara County Action Network
ACTION ALERT
1. Fracking
2. Highway 101 widening
1. FRACKING: Following up on our earlier message, please know that a major public hearing about fracking regulations is happening Monday, January 13 at the Betteravia Government Center from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Some of our colleagues have planned the following protest to begin at 2 p.m. SB CAN encourages its members and friends to attend both events and speak your minds.
At our H.O.T meetings last week, we agreed that a major focus of our comments should be on water: the potential to pollute our groundwater and the surety that fracking--if allowed in California and in Santa Barbara County--will send millions of gallons of precious water far below the surface of the Earth, never to be recovered.
Monday, January 13
Santa Barbara County Supervisors Hearing Room
511 East Lakeside Parkway
Santa Maria, CA 93455
Fracking Protest: 2 p.m.-3 p.m.
Public Hearing on Proposed DOGGR Regulations: 3 p.m.-7 p.m.
Message from persons organizing the protest:
2. CARPOOL LANES ON HIGHWAY 101: Again, following up on our earlier Action Alert, we encourage your participation in the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments' meeting on Thursday, January 16, 2014.
At our H.O.T. meetings last week, participants agreed that is essential to our interests that the widening of 101 through Summerland and Montecito be for High-Occupancy-Vehicle (HOV) lanes and not for mixed-flow lanes, as is being suggested by some.
SB CAN supports the highway widening ONLY if it is for HOV lanes. We also support other associated improvements for alternative transportation, especially the replacement of the railroad bridge over Cabrillo Blvd. to make bicyclists and pedestrians safer. SB CAN does not, however, support holding the overall HOV project hostage to that bridge replacement being included in the environmental document for the HOV project. There must be other ways to ensure the region's commitment to replacing that bridge than by delaying the HOV project for some years, at more expense than the bridge replacement itself.
It is complicated. Much has been written. If you are interested and want more information, please call me. Above all, please support retaining the HOV designation for these proposed new lanes by your testimony and your emails to the members of the SBCAG Board of Directors. Their email addresses are found here:
Also on this subject, here is the link to SB CAN's Looking Forward editorial that ran in the Santa Maria Times Jan. 10: