FOP ALERT: SHORELINE MANAGEMENT PLAN APPROVED / ACTION REQUIRED
Dear Members and Friends of Pinecrest:
In a letter dated August 15, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stated that it has no authority over the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP). FERC has determined that PG&E’s filing of the SMP is informational only and FERC will not take action on it.
What does this mean?
1. The Forest Service has already approved PG&E’s SMP as submitted to FERC.
2. FERC has abandoned its responsibility to ensure that the provisions of PG&E’s license are met.
Our lawyer is working on developing a compelling case against both the Forest Service and FERC. Writing our own letters of complaint will greatly support his work. We must do this.
We know you are tired of this issue and want to get back to enjoying your time at Pinecrest. But without your continuing efforts, we will lose what is left to enjoy.
Your letter can simply be a repeat of the statements you made when you wrote your opinions about the Draft SMP.
Yes, the Final SMP makes a few changes to the Draft, but it’s still a bad Plan.
* The SMP claims it will be an “adaptive management” plan: we argue that the Plan should adapt to what we have now and go from there, not put a bad Plan into place and try to fix it down the road.
* The Forest Service cannot articulate its goals for this poorly conceived Plan.
* No verifiable problem statement exists.
* No data or studies support the SMP; it is not defensible.
* No environmental assessment has been done to determine how the SMP will affect recreation and socio-economics of Pinecrest.
* Since there are no starting data points, any data collected in the future will not be useful to determine if the Plan is working.
* 85 mooring balls on south shore and 15 near the marina do not take into account historical sailing club use, scout use, changing uses (like more kayaks), etc.
* No data exists on numbers of boats launched at the public boat ramp or elsewhere around the Lake, all of which contributes to watercraft on the Lake and none of which has been taken into account in determining number of mooring balls.
* The limitation of one boat per buoy doesn’t make sense in many cases.
* Required buoy design is overkill for our Lake.
* Cabins without docks are disallowed shoreline beaching of boats which makes their cabins inaccessible.
* The SMP discriminates against one set of users.
Please write an e-mail to the following list and print a copy to mail in the regular postal mail to FERC, address below.
(For ease, highlight the following list, [command] copy it and [command] paste it into the “To:” field of your e-mail letter.)
Shelly_Abajian@feinstein.senate.gov,
Send a copy of your letter in the mail to FERC at the following address:
Honorable Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, N.E. PJ12.2
Washington, D.C. 20426
Thanks again for your support.
Sincerely,
Keri and Allen Green
