WHY THE TORREY HILLS COMMUNITY COALITION IS APPEALING THE CHEVRON DECISION

In the past week neighbors from throughout the Torrey Hills community have come together to form the Torrey Hills Community Coalition (THCC) to educate and inform fellow residents about emerging land use, quality of life and environmental, health and safety issues arising due to planned development projects in our community.

The project of immediate concern is the proposed Chevron Gas Station/Mini Mart/Car Wash located on East Ocean Air Drive & Carmel Mountain Road that has been approved by the City of San Diego Planning Commission pending appeal by our community.

THCC is appealing this decision because the City of San Diego has failed to take into account a number of important environmental, health and safety factors in the preparation of its Negative Mitigated Declaration (MND), a document that permits the City to fast track the approval process without the need of a detailed Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

One of the key oversights on the part of the City is their failure to acknowledge the findings of the University of Bristol's research which shows a three-fold increase in the incidence of lung cancer and childhood leukemia in communities where pollutant aerosols, such as benzene, are "ionized" or charged by high voltage power lines of over 100kv. The University of Bristol found the range of impact to be up to 500 meters away depending on the air circulation patterns in a given area. For more details on this study visit http://www.electric-fields.bris.ac.uk

The SDG&E the Penasquitos Sub Station has 230kv power lines feeding into the facility from the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant and this power is transformed into lower voltages with 138kv and 69kv lines servicing surrounding communities. The lines directly above the Chevron site are 138kv.

Chevron plans to build a 12 pump facility that will sell upwards of 5 million gallons a year. This translates to over 65,000 gallons of gas fumes being emitted into the atmosphere and potentially a 400% increase in cancer when compared to other neighborhoods in the City of San Diego. The average size of gas stations in San Diego County according to the Air Pollution Control District is 1.5 million/gallons a year. Building a regional station so close to homes makes no sense. Also, under current zoning it would not be permitted. Chevron is trying to get this project through under some grandfathered language when it appears that their permit is not even complete.

THCC believes that because of the power lines, there are some unique issues that must be taken into account before the city issues a conditional use permit to Chevron site as failure to take the ionziation issue into account could result in unacceptable human health risks to the residents of Torrey Hills.

Our problem is that without more detailed research and an EIR, we will never know for sure who in Torrey Hills will be negatively impacted or what the level of risk really is? That's why we need a study.

We believe we have a strong case supported by solid scientific evidence and specific provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) which guarantees communities ,such as ours, the opportunity to demand an EIR if a MND fails to adequately address possible environmental, health and safety concerns.