Dear San Diego County Friends and Supporters,
I thought you might be interested events for this coming week that I urge you to attend, related to Stopping the Mission Trails Power Plant, that will impact our entire county with more electrosmog and other pollution.
This pollution will blanket our region from an unnecessary, massive power plant being planned for the Santee/Tierrasanta/La Jolla/La Mesa/MiraMesa (State Route 52) corridor. To add insult to injury, it is planned right on the edge of a historic area and nature preserve, the lovely Mission Trails Regional Park.
This is the historic site of the first aquaduct in California, built with Father Junipero Serra's oversight to bring water to the first California mission established by Father Serra in what is now Mission Valley. The aquaduct can still be seen and enjoyed today on a walk through a trail in still-pristine wilderness right in the heart of our county. Native Americans lived in the immediate region, their grinding holes in the rocks still visible.
To have a power plant placed side-by-side with this aquaduct and Native American Historic Site is an abomination of our past, and present. Several of the important meetings concerning stopping this power plant to consider attending this week are: Tues 6/26 - La Mesa City Council - 6 PM, show up and ask LM City Council to vote to oppose the power plant; Thurs. 6/28 - City of San Diego Planning Commission Meeting - 9 AM - show up to oppose rezoning open land to industrial use; Fri. 6/29 - CA Energy Commission Public Workshop, starts 2 PM, West Hills High School, Santee, CA. (more below on official announcement).
I urge you to join with SaveMissionTrails.org to preserve our air quality, wildlife, human health, and historic sites. To give you an idea of what is there, from the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians Historic Sites website: http://www.viejasbandofkumeyaay.org/html/tribal_history/historic_sites.html
Mission Trails Regional Park, only eight miles from downtown San Diego, one of the largest urban parks in the US, offers guided hikes through the rugged hills and San Diego River bed, where the Indians once roamed. The state-of-the-art Mission Trails Visitor and Interpretive Center offers exhibits of the Kumeyaay people and culture. Several historical sites are designated for public view on trails throughout the 5,800-acre park. Grinding holes in the rocks used for the preparation of food can be seen from the Visitors Center loop, and also on the grasslands near the Old Mission Dam.
Cowles Mountain, part of Mission Trails Regional Park, has a Kumeyaay Winter Solstice observatory site, located along the trail of the tallest peak in the city of San Diego. From the eastern horizon, at dawn on the days surrounding the solstice a peak splits the rising sun. The original stone arrangement pointing to the peak was destroyed many years ago, according to Ken Hedges, curator with the Museum of Man, but it has been since recreated, and is a popular hike destination around the Winter Solstice.
Upcoming events:
TUES 6/26/12:
La Mesa City Council Meeting
Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 6 PM
City Council Chambers, La Mesa City Hall, 8130 Allison Avenue, La Mesa
Power plant applicant & opponents present info. The council may vote to oppose.
Save Mission Trails - Tuesday Meetings 7 PM *new time*
June 26th: Carlton Oaks Golf Course, Clubhouse patio. 9200 Inwood Drive, Santee
Status reports/info, meet group members, join the good fight, volunteer.
City of SD Planning Commission Meeting
THURSDAY, June 28 - 9 AM
KEY HEARING! City Admin Bldg, 202 C St.,12th flr, (downtown) San Diego
Initiation of rezoning from open space to industrial for the power plant. Say NO!
FRIDAY, June 29th, 2 PM
California Energy Commission Public Workshop
KEY MEETING! West Hills High School, 8756 Mast Boulevard, Santee
The Mission Trails Visitors Center is offering special pre-dawn Winter Solstice hikes in late December, guided by official Mission Trails Regional Park Trail Guides and Canyoneers of the San Diego Natural History Museum. Hikers are invited to meet at 6 a.m. at the trailhead to the Cowles Mountain Staging Area on Golfcrest at Navajo Drive. For more information call 619-668-3281 or visit www.mtrp.org.
Susan Brinchman
La Mesa
Director and Founder, Center for Electrosmog Prevention
