The decades-long debate over off-roading in the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area ended this year when the California Coastal Commission decided there would be no off-roading there after 2023. Right?
Wrong! According to the Friends of the Oceano Dunes, which quickly fired off a bevy of lawsuits—Which now total five! Yes, five!—against the Coastal Commission. As Friends President Jim Suty puts it: “Friends does not believe OHV will be banned at the Oceano Dunes. Friends has been very successful in the court systems identifying and winning against the [Coastal Commission], APCD, State Parks, and county, to name a few.”
The lawsuit-happy, pro-off-roading nonprofit recently won a 2014 lawsuit it filed against the SLO County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) over dust pollution. An Oct. 7 ruling nullifies an agreement between the APCD and State Parks designed to control dust, and Friends celebrated!
Gotcha, regulators! Well. Kind of.
This nearly 8-year-old lawsuit was over a convoluted, jargon-packed regulation known as Rule 1001, which, according the APCD Executive Direct Gary Willey, isn’t even used anymore. So, he said, the ruling essentially means nothing! Willey, who heads up an agency that Friends has sued several times over the years, is fed up with the nonprofit’s shenanigans.
“This is a ‘scorched earth’ tactic that is designed to use up limited public moneys that would be otherwise used to help clean the air,” he said. Damn, Gary. Tell us how you really feel! Let it all out!
Sounds like a useless-earth tactic to me. I wonder how much money Friends has spent suing various regulatory agencies over the years to try and stem the tide of growing anti-off-roading regulations. Eight years resulted in a ruling that means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Even State Parks, which is arguably also pro-off-roading, said the lawsuit makes no difference when it comes to how dust at the dunes gets regulated these days: “The current court decision will not have an impact on ongoing dust control efforts at Oceano Dunes SVRA since most of the dust control projects that State Parks is implementing are more stringent than Rule 1001,” State Parks Public Information Officer Jorge Moreno said.
I would assume that Friends is up on the latest dust regulations and how they impact off-roading at the dunes, so it seems like this little victory was more of a morale booster, a symbolic win against “the man,” than anything else.
Maybe if the APCD dealt with fewer lawsuits though, it would have this whole hazardous dusty air thing figured out by now. The agency is behind on its pollution resolution to reduce dust emissions from the dunes by 50 percent by December 2023. As of mid-summer, the agency had managed a 22 percent reduction. And Nipomo residents, who bear the lion’s share of dust issues, were not happy!
“It appears we have triers, not doers. I would say if the State Park leaders who were in charge of the [dust] mitigation were generals in World War II, we’d all be speaking German now,” resident Tom Ryan said at a recent APCD hearing board meeting.
Wow, Tom. That’s quite a metaphor. A little hyperbolic, maybe, but point taken!
In this old debate, regulatory agencies lose and nobody’s happy.
Democracy, baby!
The canary is pro-happiness. Send comments to [email protected].
