The Desert Protection Society, an activist group that grew out of the fight against the now-dead plan to create an immense landfill in the Eagle Mountain area, has recently been engaged on two fronts in the same area. Reporter Dan Stork reports that both state and federal agencies are taking notice…
Recently, we reported that the Desert Protection Society (DPS) claimed that the Riverside County Department of Conservation suppressed reported violations in the reclamation efforts by Kaiser Ventures in a mining operation it is conducting at the site of a defunct iron mine at Eagle Mountain, near the eastern part of Joshua Tree National Park. DPS also claimed a conflict of interest by the DOC supervisor who signed the revised report on the mine, and further said that DOC retaliated against a whistle-blowing employee. In emails received by Z107.7, DPS board members told us that they had instituted a letter-writing campaign based on their complaints to the California State Mining and Geology Board, and that the Board had responded by scheduling a hearing on the matter in Riverside on October 9.
In the Desert Protection Society’s other battle, it had filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a rehearing of the Commission’s June decision to grant a license to Eagle Crest Energy for its Eagle Mountain Pumped Storage Hydroelectric project. In an order dated August 20, the FERC granted a re-hearing of that decision. The order did not specify a date for the re-hearing.
DESERT PROTECTION SOCIETY ACTIVE IN TWO EAGLE MOUNTAIN BATTLES
