Parents and consultants press Mill Valley School District to study landfill risks as EIR scoping opens

Julio Arroyo, the district’s director of maintenance operations and safety, opened the July 18 scoping meeting for the Mill Valley Middle School facilities modernization project and described the session as the public opportunity to shape the scope of the Notice of Preparation for the environmental impact report (EIR).

The meeting centered on two parallel environmental processes: the district-led CEQA EIR and a DTSC-led Preliminary Endangerment Assessment (PEA). Richard Grassetti of Grassetti Environmental Consulting explained that “CEQA’s purpose is to identify potentially significant impacts, inform the public, inform agencies…and reduce or avoid potentially significant adverse impacts to the physical environment,” and that an EIR was selected because the project may have significant environmental effects. Ryan Bass of Nino and Moore said the PEA is a separate, concurrent DTSC process to investigate site conditions and guide any necessary cleanup or mitigation.

Why it matters: parents and nearby residents asked for specific, enforceable study requirements before the district advances design work. Susan Dawson, a parent who spoke in the meeting, urged the district to make the EIR analyze “all existing hazards on the site” and to study alternatives for both the permanent and the temporary…