Chapter IV - Another Battle for Ramos

The County of San Bernardino Board of Supervisors issued a conditional use permit on the Nursery Products sludge-to-compost project outside of Hinkley & Barstow in 2007, conditioned on a number of items being done--one of which was the use of a liner equal to the most stringent liner used in County landfills, which involves a thick hardened clay membrane that will not leak; the permit pursued by Nursery Products and approved by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board last night (March 10, 2010), will allow compacted native soil under the sludge-to-compost operation (which will leak). The challenge now for our District Attorney, is to make the permittee (which is Nursery Products) live up to the conditional use permit conditions imposed by the County Board of Supervisors should the final green light be given by the Courts and the Board to the project. Will Mike Ramos commit to protecting the public health and safety or will he let special interests direct his office to inaction again? I will, if elected to the office of San Bernardino County District Attorney, put the resources of the County District Attorney's office into enforcing any and all safety conditions and or requirements imposed by the County Board of Supervisors and state law/rules/regulations on Nursery Products. Our public health and safety demand no less. In fact taking it one step further, I would create an environmental watchdog unit to improve oversight over these projects. Bob Conaway