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Litigation Looming for Napa’s Walt Ranch Project
Redwood Needles
Litigation Looming for Napa’s Walt Ranch Project
BY NANCY TAMARISK, NAPA GROUP CHAIR
In what could be a landmark case uniting the fights against deforestation and climate change, the Sierra Club has joined the Center for Biological Diversity to file a lawsuit challenging Napa County’s approval of the Walt Ranch project. Two other local organizations, the Living River Council and the Circle Oaks Water District are also filing separate lawsuits.
This fight extends Redwood Chapter’s long tradition of forest and woodland protection, which has included victories in the Headwaters redwood forest preservation, the Bohemian Grove timber harvest plan, and the proposed Preservation Ranch and Artesa clear cuts.
The challenge to Walt Ranch, a vineyard project proposed for the eastern Napa hills, has galvanized community opposition beyond any development in recent local history.
Located at the top of Atlas Peak, the project plan originally called for clear-cutting over 28,000 trees in a 400+ acre total area. The land straddles the headwaters of two creeks: Milliken and Capell. Milliken hosts spawning steelhead, and also feeds Milliken Reservoir, a Napa City water source. The Capell ground waters supply the needs of Circle Oaks, a small community adjacent to Walt. The wild lands harbor several ‘species of concern’, and is a critical wildlife corridor spanning the north-south range of hills which form the eastern rim of Napa Valley.
Over 3000 pages of public comment were submitted in response to the 2014 Walt Ranch draft environmental impact report (EIR), highlighting a wide range of issues, including habitat loss, groundwater depletion, pollution of creeks by sediment and fertilizers, unsafe road access, ground instability, greenhouse gas impacts and noise and air pollution.
Sierra Club and Living Rivers Council were two early local challengers, joined by the renowned statewide advocacy group, Center for Biological Diversity. Community concern spurred the creation of two new watchdog groups: the Defenders of the East Napa Watersheds, centered in Circle Oaks, and Vision 2050, which has become a prominent challenger to development projects up and down the County. Hundreds of people contributed to the effort in ways ranging from donating money, analyzing technical documents, to community canvassing, to turning out for demonstrations. At least a dozen experts in various environmental fields were hired or contributed pro bono to the EIR challenges.
Thanks to our unremitting pressure over two years, we wrested significant concessions from the developers. The vineyard size is down to 160 acres, about half the original proposal. Trees to be felled are down from 28,000 to 14,000. Groundwater use has been capped. Construction vehicles are banned from Circle Oaks Drive, an unstable roadway overlying sewer lines. More protections are in place for threatened Circle Oaks and City water supplies, though these are still inadequate.
However, the failure to achieve concessions on greenhouse gas impacts and special species protections, among other issues, prompted an
appeal of the final EIR to the Board of Supervisors. When that was rejected, litigation remained our only option for continuing the fight.
The Greenhouse Gas Connection
Each litigating party will focus on particular areas of concern. The core issue of Sierra Club’s litigation is the loss of carbon sequestration from the 160 acres of woodland to be destroyed. Worldwide, deforestation is the second strongest driver of global warming. The Sierra Club is charging that, contrary to California law, the EIR fails to account or mitigate for the greenhouse gas impacts of the deforestation.
Center for Biological Diversity is focusing mainly on sensitive species issues; the Circle Oaks Water District is seeking groundwater protections, while Living Rivers Council is attacking creek sediment and dewatering of Milliken Creek.
The Walt Ranch EIR mitigates for loss of trees by the establishment of conservation easements on other parts of Walt Ranch. However, the Sierra Club maintains that, neither logically nor legally, does preserving one tree while cutting down another mitigate for the carbon storage lost by the destroyed tree. In addition, the Walt developers maintain that they do not have to account for the impacts of tree disposal, whether by burning or chipping.
Win or lose, vineyard developers have been put on notice: Attempts to clear cut Napa woodlands will meet fierce opposition, resulting in huge costs and project delays. Many will decide there are easier ways to make money.
And if we prevail, our legacy could be a powerful legal tool for the protection of forests and woodlands across the entire state.