For Release: January 13, 2004
UFW demands environmental scrutiny
of Gallo’s Monterey vineyard plan
In a historic move, United Farm Workers union is supporting the Sierra Club’s appeal of a Monterey County permit for a high-risk vineyard development by E&J Gallo Vineyards Corp.
On Tuesday, Jan. 13, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will consider the Sierra Club’s appeal of the county Planning Commission’s approval last June of Gallo’s proposal to double the size of its vineyards on the historic Olson Ranch property near Soledad.
As Monterey County faces both a wine grape glut and a crisis in supplying low-income health care, Gallo’s record of failing to provide health benefits for most of its vineyard workers raises questions about whether the county should encourage it to expand operations there, the UFW argues. But the supervisors will mainly be considering the environmental threat posed by Gallo’s plan.
Gallo proposes to cut down 320 irreplaceable mature native oaks, a protected species. Its plan also presents erosion risks, endangers wildlife corridors, and a proposed reservoir may exacerbate over pumping of area groundwater.
When Gallo expanded winegrowing operations in Sonoma County, its environmental record was terrible. Last March it paid $500,000 to settle a multi-agency lawsuit for damage to a Russian River tributary at its controversial Russian River/McMurray Ranch vineyard development. In 2001 a Gallo subsidiary working on the same property was ordered to pay $95,000 to settle a Clean Water Act suit for dumping fill in a wetland and improper creek drainage excavation. And in hearings last January, Gallo’s Sonoma neighbors complained of many similar incidents that have gone unpunished. As one local newspaper in Sonoma County put it, “the company put profits and expediency above the environment.”
“Gallo can’t be trusted to do the right thing,” says UFW National Vice President Efren Barajas, the union’s regional director for the Central Coast. The union will urge county supervisors to demand an environmental impact report from Gallo, including very specific mitigation measures, before it is allowed to proceed.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the Olson Ranch permit at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 13, the in the board chambers at 240 Church St., East Wing Room 225 in Salinas. More than a dozen farm workers will accompany UFW representative Sergio Guzman as he testifies at the hearing.
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