For the first time in eight years, the California Coastal Commission reviewed the management of vehicle impacts at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
As a result of the Feb. 11 meeting, the commission urged state parks to produce a completed habitat conservation plan for the recreation area. That plan, intended to provide a framework for coastal protection, has been in the works since 2001.
“It’s been 14 years, but I guess what gets me is that it will be another three years minimum before it would be made public,” Tarren Collins, former chair of the Santa Lucia chapter of the Sierra Club, said during the meeting.
According to Sarah Christie, legislative coordinator for the Coastal Commission, the commission didn’t take any specific action at the meeting other than to express that they would like to see the host of concerns around vehicle management resolved.
The Oceano Dunes recreation area operates under a permit issued in 1982 to establish vehicle caps and an interim staging area. The permit requires that the Coastal Commission review park operations every year, but the commission hasn’t reviewed the permit since 2007.
Christie said that the commission doesn’t have the means to conduct the review every year.
“Our baseline staffing levels have always been chronically deficient,” she said. “We really had to prioritize where we were assigning our staff resources.”
Air pollution monitors downwind of the Nipomo Mesa record the highest levels of particulate matter in San Luis Obispo County. On 93 days in 2013, they measured 24-hour periods in excess of the state air pollution limit, which is 50 micrograms per cubic meter.
According to Larry Allen, the SLO County Air Pollution Control District’s executive officer, the Coastal Commission decided that air quality isn’t its jurisdiction and deferred the issue to State Parks.
“It’s clear that the Coastal Commission does not have any kind of authority over air quality,” he said. “But they will be responsible for approving the dust control measures that will be approved by State Parks over the long term. From that standpoint, they do have responsibility. Location and placement of the control measures is really important, and they have pretty much complete authority over all of that.”
Christie said that changes to the recreation area’s permit could be possible within the next year.
“When this comes back to the commission for an annual review, consistent with the terms of the permit, then the commission has the option of amending the permit to add whatever conditions it feels are appropriate to better manage the resources out there,” she said.
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 5, 2015.
