North Bay Voice: Proposed casino could increase community’s wildfire risk

Californians are no strangers to wildfires. Every year, emergency responders and county officials prepare by examining evacuation plans to ensure residents can swiftly reach safety during a fast-moving fire. This year, officials in Washington, D.C. are making local emergency response analysis more challenging in Sonoma County.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is poised to approve a new mega casino that threatens safe evacuation routes for thousands of residents. In their zeal to restore land to an out-of-county tribe, DOI is ignoring the well-reasoned concerns of the local governments charged with managing evacuations, the Indigenous Southern Pomo people, who have managed fire on this land for generations and their own environmental reviews that identify a clear and present danger to Sonoma County residents.

Our neighbors know that when a natural disaster occurs, every second counts. Wildfires can rapidly escalate as winds shift, turning warnings into mandatory evacuation orders. That was the case earlier this year when Sonoma County’s Point Fire forced hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes to reach safety. The Point Fire was not unique. Since 2008, our region has experienced 29 major wildfires.

In many ways, though, the frequency and severity of wildfires in the area have brought the community closer. Elected leaders, developers and local communities work together to assess and plan new economic projects with an eye toward ensuring public safety – and that’s why many in the community strongly oppose the proposed Shiloh Resort and Casino.

The Koi Nation’s proposed casino site is situated along a major evacuation route outside Windsor in an area designated as “wildland-urban interface.”  Economic development in the area requires thoughtful planning to ensure that buildings and facilities will not create traffic bottlenecks and hinder access to evacuation routes. But the stakeholders most capable of raising these legitimate concerns are being shut out by federal decision-makers.

Even the federal government’s own environmental impact review of the Koi Nation’s proposed casino found it would disrupt current evacuation routes. Local officials in Windsor are keenly aware of the unnecessary risks this project creates. They estimate the casino would extend the already dangerously long two-hour evacuation to an excruciating and life-threatening eight hours. The Koi Nation has not provided sufficient details on how to mitigate these threats.

​​These public safety concerns are paramount. However, the project’s boosters have failed to reckon with the multitude of other strains the casino would impose on our already overburdened resources and infrastructure. Our groundwater and stormwater management systems cannot withstand the added demands the casino would bring. Meanwhile, local residents could see their drinking water choked off as the casino and resort draw on limited supply. Our current roads are not constructed to handle an influx of visitors every week. To date, we still have not seen sufficient information about how local law enforcement and emergency medical services personnel will cope with the increased demand.

Human lives are not the only ones at stake. Construction would endanger wildlife habitat, fragmenting wildlife populations and their ecosystems. The increased demand for cooling services during summer would place additional stress on our power grid. Additionally, the environmental review for the project failed to calculate the casino’s energy costs and carbon footprint.

Despite these mounting concerns and the overwhelming opposition from the community, labor, our elected leaders, and the indigenous people of the area, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and her staff at the DOI need to step in to ensure our neighborhood is safe. Because today, in Sonoma County, the Koi Nation’s casino project is not a gamble we should take.

Former Santa Rosa Police Chief Hank Schreeder served in the department for 28 years.