At long last, Santa Clara County has published the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed mine at Juristac. In doing so, they opened a 60-day public comment period that ends on September 26. Please spread the word!
For more information about writing your own comment letter on the EIR and other ways to take action during the comment period, please visit our EIR Comment Period Landing Page.
Juristac EIR Comment Writing Workshop
On Thursday, August 4th at 6pm we will be hostinghosted a public Zoom-based event on how to write effective EIR comment letters addressing the impacts of the proposed mine at Juristac. We’ll be joined by experts from the Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the law firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, so you can learn more and get your questions answered—with optional time at the end to workshop your letter. Update: the workshop was a success and you can find a reportback and video here
Santa Clara Virtual Planning Commission Hearing
In addition, we’ve been informed that the Santa Clara County Planning Commission plans to hold a public hearing to receive spoken comments on the Sargent Quarry DEIR on Thursday, August 25. This hearing will be held over Zoom, in the afternoon starting at 1:30pm. Each speaker will likely be allotted only 3 minutes or less. Mark your calendar to plan to speak up for Juristac! More details will be announced when they become available on the Planning Commission webpage.
More updates & events to come
Amah Mutsun tribal members have been preparing for two months of action during the public comment period, which will culminate in a public Rally for Juristac in San Jose in September (Save the date: Saturday, September 10 1pm – 4pm). Preparations have included a couple of day-long gatherings to create beautiful signs, banners and t-shirts.
Recent resolutions or letters of support for protecting Juristac have been submitted to the County of Santa Clara by the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, Regeneración—Pajaro Valley Climate Action, the Green Party of Santa Clara County and Democratic Club of North Santa Cruz County.
In other news, the Protect Juristac Instagram account is back — please follow us for regular updates if you use Instagram!
Press release
Our press team published a press release when the Sargent Quarry EIR was published. You can download that press release here, and consider sharing it with any reporters you may know. Several outlets have covered the story so far, with more in the works:
- CBS Bay Area 7/23/22: Plan for quarry near Gilroy draws Indigenous tribe’s blowback
- KCBS Radio 7/25/22: Indigenous tribe battles ‘disgraceful’ development plan near Gilroy
- Indian Country Today 7/25/22: New analysis outlines significant impacts of sand and gravel mining at Juristac (press release)
- Gilroy Dispatch 7/26/22: Report identifies ‘significant’ impacts from proposed Sargent Mine
- San Jose Spotlight 7/27/22: Santa Clara County mine project threatens wildlife
- San Francisco Chronicle 7/30/22: South Bay gravel mine proposal would tread on sacred tribal land, report says
- San Jose Mercury News 7/31/22: Highly anticipated report about South County mine proposed near Gilroy released
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