Residents urge Santa Cruz County to block or tighten review of 90 Minto Road battery project

Dozens of residents and community leaders urged the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 10 to bar or tightly regulate a proposed large-scale lithium battery energy storage system at 90 Minto Road near Watsonville.

Speakers including Phoenix Artemesia, Diane Denton and others described health and safety concerns after last year27s Moss Landing fire, warned of potential toxic smoke or long-term contamination, and asked the county to require full environmental impact reports, independent fire- and plume-testing, evacuation-route and traffic studies, and stronger community engagement held locally in Watsonville.

The callers told the board the proposed site sits near dense, lower-income neighborhoods and working agricultural land covered by Measure J, the county27s voter-approved growth-management initiative. Phoenix Artemesia said placing a grid-scale facility near low-income and predominantly Latino neighborhoods would be “environmental racism” given the Vista Fire27s recent trauma and the site27s proximity to homes and schools. Diane Denton and other speakers asked the county to require worst-case plume modeling and separate environmental review for each developer proposal rather than a combined, truncated process.

Residents pointed to the Moss Landing incident and to national compilations of battery-related failures to question developer safety claims. Several speakers urged the board to require: (1) full EIR scoping that includes environmental justice and NEPA evaluation; (2) seismic, liquefaction, evacuation-route and traffic analyses; (3) public hearings held in Watsonville at times accessible to working people; and (4) legally binding financial assurances and emergency-response commitments so the county or residents are not left to cover long-term cleanup or health costs.

County planning staff told the board the project-specific timeline and the county27s approach remain constrained by state and federal rules; staff also said the next formal step for any project-related review would be issuing an RFP for an environmental consultant if the applicant indicates it intends to move forward. Supervisor Justin Cummings specifically asked staff for an update on next steps; CDI staff said an RFP to hire an EIR consultant would be issued only if the applicant chooses to proceed, and that a contract with a consultant would come back to the board for approval. Staff noted the next broad update on that item is scheduled for August.

What happens next: the board did not take action on any BESS zoning or siting policy at the Feb. 10 meeting. Instead, staff reiterated that the county is awaiting the applicant27s decision on whether to pursue project-level reviews; if the applicant moves forward, staff said the county would issue an RFP for an EIR and return with a consultant contract and a public comment period for the draft environmental document.

Quote: "We can't let it burn down the castle," said one Watsonville resident urging the board to require expanded safety and community protections.

Ending: Residents asked the board to use whatever county controls are available to require fuller, site-specific testing, limit siting near homes and schools, and increase local engagement. The county27s next administrative steps will depend on whether applicants for the Minto Road site elect to proceed with formal approvals and environmental review.