Eagle Mountain Dump Opposition Resolution

Below is the CA Democratic Council's Resolution of Opposition to the Eagle Mountain dump and support of the Give It Back! campaign. Our thanks to long time CCV supporter, Bruce Campbell who crafted and gained UNANIMOUS support from the Committee

Unanimously approved on June 19th, 2005, at the California Democratic Council Statewide Convention in San Bernardino.

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OPPOSE the HUGE EAGLE MOUNTAIN LANDFILL PROPOSAL

Whereas the Los Angeles County Sanitation District seeks to purchase a site in Riverside County which includes the Eagle Mountain mine in order to dump 20,000 tons of trash a day despite being partially surrounded by designated wilderness in Joshua Tree National Park, a park often considered the crown jewel of the California desert; and

Whereas there would be little incentive to seriously recycle if this massive dump opens, groundwater pollution can easily occur since thousands of explosive blasts from the era of iron ore mining created easy pathways for contaminants to reach the aquifer, and since corvid bird species which eat juvenile desert tortoises are attracted by food scraps, a huge dump at Eagle Mountain would attract corvids which could cause the extinction of the desert tortoise species by reducing its population and genetic diversity in both Joshua Tree National Park as well as in its best habitat in the Fenner/Ward/Chemehuevi Valleys / Pinto Basin Wilderness to the north/northeast of Eagle Mountain and the eastern end of Joshua Tree National Park; and

Whereas a mining claim by Kaiser Ventures was allowed to proceed at Eagle Mountain, thus effectively removing this area from Joshua Tree National Monument as long as mining did not lapse for more than seven years, yet currently there has been no mining at Eagle Mountain for more than twenty years;

Be it therefore resolved that the California Democratic Council, meeting in convention in San Bernardino on June 17th - 19th, 2005, opposes the Eagle Mountain landfill proposal and agrees with the Citizens for Chuckwalla Valley, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, National Parks Conservation Association and other groups that seek the reunification of the 29,775 acres near Eagle Mountain with the adjacent Joshua Tree National Park, while urging that recycling be greatly increased and that other alternatives be examined pertaining to municipal waste from Southern California counties; and

Be it further resolved that the California Democratic Council shall send this resolution opposing the landfill proposed at Eagle Mountain to U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, as well as to the Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who represent districts in California.