Trial Date Set for Suit Against County Over Asphalt Plant

The showdown between Dutra Materials and local groups opposed to the asphalt plant will move from the Supervisors’ chambers to the court room starting September 14 when a Sonoma County Superior Court judge hears opening briefs in the trial between the two parties. 

The City of Petaluma, Friends of Shollenberger Park, Moms for Clean Air, Madrone Audubon Society and various other community groups and individuals filed a lawsuit against Sonoma County in January. It in, the plaintiffs alleged that the county failed to conduct proper review of the Dutra Materials asphalt plant across from Shollenberger Park, even as it underwent several revisions in January 2008, August 2009 and again in 2010.

The project was approved 3-2 by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors last December, with Efren Carrillo and the now-retired Paul Kelley and Mike Kearns voting in favor.

The lawsuit mentions various problems including:

• misleading mapping of the river's navigable waterway and high-pressure PG&E gas transmission pipelines located under Dutra's riverfront parcel;
• unmitigated traffic congestion and diesel exhaust air pollution from over 145,000 truck trips per year;
• failure to accurately and adequately address significant loud noise, odors, toxic and noxious emissions of gases and dusts from the asphalt manufacturing operations;

Dutra Materials has said that the environmental impact reports adequately addressed impact and the project underwent a "very thorough public review process" in the five years it was being debated.

Earlier this year, a judge ruled that Petaluma-based Shamrock, a concrete and building materials company, will be a party in the lawsuit. Opponents of the project say Shamrock should be included because Dutra's plan hinges on access to a loading dock owned by Shamrock. Shamrock says it never gave Dutra permission to use its dock and that the disagreement is between the city of Petaluma and Dutra.

The official trial date has been set for December 9.