The San Bernardino County Supervisors meeting on August 18 drew a large number of commenters on item 76: "Conduct a public hearing to consider the proposed ordinance to repeal and reenact local surface mining and land reclamation regulations." Commenters expressed strong concerns that through the proposed changes, the County was handing over environmental review to the recently greatly weakened federal environmental review process. After the comment period, Chair Dawn Rowe and other supervisors expressed their concern that staff had not effectively communicated with the public about the intent and implications of the proposed changes. Chair Rowe then moved to continue the hearing to October 20. She requested that staff do additional research and clearly present the proposed changes and address the public's questions.

Chair Rowe suggested staff should review and address the three questions asked by commenter Chris Carraher (MBCA Board Member Emeritus and Past President).

The video of the hearing is available here, starting at 41:35 (or you can scroll down the agenda that’s below the video window to item #76.).  Additional news coverage can be found at the Hi Desert Star, and a very in-depth report with extensive quotations at the Desert Trumpet.