The arrogant decision by San Jose officials to violate an
agreement to install a southern air monitor and have removed a
northern air monitor to track emissions from the Metcalf Energy
Plant is outrageous. It ought to spur South County residents and
officials to take immediate action.
Where are the pollutants from the Metcalf Energy Plant going?
The arrogant decision by San Jose officials to violate an agreement to install a southern air monitor and have removed a northern air monitor to track emissions from the Metcalf Energy Plant is outrageous. It ought to spur South County residents and officials to take immediate action.
News from the same day that tiny, rural San Martin has the worst air quality in the Santa Clara Valley demonstrates that pollution generated elsewhere ends up in South County. The 600-megawatt Metcalf Energy Plant, which is permitted to spew up to 124 tons of nitrous oxide and 589 tons of carbon monoxide each year, has been open for nearly three years. What have South County residents been breathing as a result?
Without air monitors, who knows?
Some South County officials have written letters of protest
Elected officials – including Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate and Assembly members John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, and Anna Caballero, D-Salinas –  have written letters to San Jose officials urging them to install the monitors, but to no avail. Where are the letters from Gilroy officials?
But they are not the only people who ought to be advocating on South County’s behalf in this matter. Bay Air Quality Management District officials should not let this egregious act stand. Nonprofit environmental groups ought to marshall their resources to pressure San Jose officials to install the air monitors immediately.
So far, their silence has been deafening. San Jose planner Laurel Prevetti has attempted to diminish the air monitor installation as a gesture of goodwill instead of a binding agreement. Baloney. Clearly, San Jose must be forced to live up to its word in this matter.
Three years later the promise has gone by the convenient wayside
It’s outrageous that it has been nearly three years since the plant began operating and the air monitors have not been installed. But now San Jose officials say they’ll never be installed. Non-profit environmental groups, state and federal environmental officials and local elected officials must pool their resources to prevent San Jose from weaseling out of ever installing the much-needed air monitors. That will likely – and unfortunately – require a lawsuit. For the sake of South County’s environment, it’s clearly time to proceed with litigation.
Act now:
Contact your local environmental groups:
Communities for a Better Environment: Web: www.greenbelt.org; Phone: (415) 398-3730; Email: in**@gr*******.org
South Bay Chapter (408) 983-0539; Email ab********@gr*******.org
Local officials: contact information is online on the Contact Your Elected Officials page under the Opinion drop-down menu.
