Comments coming in on Syar River mining plan: Dec. 12 deadline to submit comments

Controversial plans to resume gravel mining in the Russian River
between Healdsburg and Geyserville were attracting new attention
this week in front of a Dec. 12 deadline for public comment.
The proposed Syar gravel operation would skim up to 350,000 tons of
sand and gravel annually from bars in the Alexander Valley where
property owners say gravel build-up worsens flood damage and erodes
vineyards.
“This proposed project would at least do something to help remove
the buildup of gravels in the river that are causing bank erosion
at an increasing rate,” Healdsburg’s Russian River Property Owners
Association said in a letter this week to the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE) which is now reviewing the project.
Syar’s plan to skim the voluminous gravel deposits in the vicinity
of the Highway 128 Geyserville Bridge would help keep the eroded
western approach to the bridge from washing away, say property
owners. If that happens thousands of cubic yards of prime topsoil
and vineyard land would be washed downstream and out to sea, says
RRPOA’s petition to USACE.
But critics insist Syar’s planned gravel skimming will take more
material than the river can replenish, resulting in environmental
havoc for native fish and promoting erosion of property farther
downstream.
Supporters and opponents were both urging their followers to send
their comments to USACE this week ahead of the Dec. 12
deadline.
Comments will then go to Syar for a response, said USACE Permit
Regulator Roberta Morganstern. Syar will then have 30 days to
respond.
When a decision will come “is difficult to say,” said Morganstern.
But even with USACE approval Syar still needs approval from other
jurisdictions including the North Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board and the California Department of Fish & Game,
said Morganstern.
What nearly everyone seems to agree on is that no mining will start
anytime soon. Syar’s USACE application to the USACE still has
deficiencies that will have to be addressed before any decision is
made, said Morganstern.
Fourth District Supervisor Mike McGuire, who was not yet elected to
the Board when Syar’s project last year got a unanimous go-ahead
from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, said county officials
are awaiting the results of the federal process just like everyone
else.
“At the moment the county is, like everyone else on both sides, in
a holding pattern,” said McGuire. “The authority now rests in the
Army Corps of Engineers.”
Healdsburg resident Don McEnhill, director of the Russian
Riverkeeper project that filed a lawsuit this year over the amount
of gravel Syar was allowed to extract in its county permit, agreed
the process will take awhile win, lose or draw.
The lawsuit is in a settlement mode but even without the court
battle, Syar still needs to amend its application to USACE before
anything moves forward, said McEnhill.
Even without Riverkeeper’s objections, “This application won’t be
going anywhere very soon,” said McEnhill.
There are still too many unanswered questions from federal
officials that Syar so far has not addressed, said McEnhill.
“If Syar really wanted this permit they would cure all the
deficiencies,” said McEnhill. “From what we can see, Syar doesn’t
seem to be interested in getting this permit any time soon.”