[Updated on 09082015 - I made a correction on the MAC report.]
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WONDER VALLEY MONTHLY MONDAY MEETING
Second Monday of the month, September 14, 2015, 9:00 a.m.
Wonder Valley Community Center
80526 Amboy Road, Wonder Valley, CA 92277
Wonder Valley MAC Delegate and Meeting Chair: Teresa Sitz
Everyone is invited and welcome to attend and participate.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
- Call to order
- Introductions
- Community comment on items not on the agenda
The community is also invited to comment after the reports and during the discussions below.
- Reports and Presentations
A. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
B. Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Jim Ricker Assistant Chief of Staff G5, Kristina Becker Community Liaison
C. Discussion and possible action: Shall the community endorse the delegate’s MAC Report to be read at the MAC meeting tonight?
- Ongoing Business
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent Van Gogh
A. Neighborhood Watch and NextDoor
B. Illegal Dumping
C. Discussion and/or possible action:
D. Shall the Community schedule a community potluck for October?
- Agenda planning
The community is invited to suggest items to place on the next meeting agenda.
- Announcements
- Adjournment
September 14, 2015, MAC Report: Wonder Valley
by Teresa Sitz, Wonder Valley Delegate
We had a community meeting this morning with ___ in attendance. We were very happy to welcome Jim Rickers and Kristina Becker of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, to present. We also discussed dates for a community cleanup and a community potluck.
On August 15 neighbors took me on a tour of the north of Amboy neighborhood and showed me dump sites and a high crime area.
The following week I followed up on a letter that a community member received from an oil company asking permission to use their property for a pipeline. I believe this letter was several years old but the community member was still concerned.
I researched the issue and found that the pipeline under Pipeline Road originally belonged to Arco and was called the Arco 16, being 16” in diameter. At some point it was owned by Questar who then sold it to Southern California Gas. Southern California Gas now owns it and uses it to transport natural gas. Questar attempted to buy the pipeline back from Southern California Gas to convert it to ship crude oil, some of which is the highly volatile Bakken crude obtained by hydraulic fracking. Questar then considered putting down another 16” pipeline along the Southern California Gas line and contacted a large number of landowners, including our community member, asking for permission to cross their land with the pipeline.
I spoke with Steve Chapman, a spokesperson at Questar, and he told me the company is looking at several possibilities including a rail terminus at White Water where they would offload crude oil into a pipeline there. Another option is moving crude oil by rail along the BLM utility corridor that parallels the 10 freeway, or selling their pipelines to another company.
This is an issue that we need to keep an eye on. A crude oil spill anywhere in the Morongo Basin would be tragic.
Looking at Google maps it seems that along some portions of Pipeline Road in Wonder Valley you can see the profile of the Arco pipeline – that it may not be buried deeply. I’d like to research this further as it seems that off-road and even on-road vehicles could conceivably strike the pipeline and fracture it, leading to a gas leak. This would be one reason to oppose the WEMO plan and continue to limit OHV access on public roads and lands, and also ask Southern California Gas to assess the possibility of this type of accident.
