Hi, I found your website by doing a search about asphalt roofing tar. For the last year and a half I've been the community organizer for the No More Tar Roofs campaign at the Arbors at Antelope near Sacramento. This community was undergoing a three year re-roofing project using asphalt roofing tar. I personally became ill and was put on inhalers and then my daughter began to have the same symptoms as me. At that point I fought the project by filing complaints with AQMD, handing out flyers to neighbors, calling and writing governement. Luckily I was able to receive technical assistance from the US EPA which got me some media attention. The project was halted and then just two months ago began again using a safer TPO roofing material that produces no fumes and is more eco-friendly. I was just in People Magazine and won the Mom on a Mission award from Healthy Child Healthy World. You are right to fight this asphalt plant. Asphalt is a dangerous product and WILL cause illness within the community putting especially the children at risk. I wanted to share the information about bioasphalt, which is a non-petroleum based bitumen product made from organic material such as sugar, etc. Reason being, Petaluma is quite liberal and might consider investing in this product rather than toxic and outdated Big Oil asphalt. Pushing an alternative is so much more productive and could really put Petaluma on the map as the first city to use this eco-friendly product. http://www.ecopave.net/ I have no stock in this company's success. I just want to see the end to traditional asphalt. It really is the forgotten pollutant. It's time it gets credit for the impact it has on our air quaility and it's contribution to global warming. Please, don't hesitate to contact me if there's anything I can do to help your group. Keep up the good work!

I asked Pamela what I can do to help get the word out there about Shollenberger Park, let me know what I can do,

Met you all at the Opening of the Ellis Creek water treatment plant. When the entire Petaluma City Council opposes this badly conceived project - how can it possibly be considered? Please keep up this important work! Then, the Mom's network should start lobbying for the Unocal gas plume clean up under the vacant lot at S.Petaluma & D st. that has been under an EPA violation order for more than a decade. Only thing stopping Cheveron from cleaning it up is lack of public pressure and will.

Thank you for your involvement with this important issue. As many of you probably realized by now, its not about any one specific development project its about taking back our community and encouraging policies that build upon healthy sustainable forms of development. The other issue looming is the "bigbox retail development" in Petaluma. These specific retail projects (over 800,000 sq. feet and growing) have all the environmental impacts as an Asphalt plant plus cultural and social impacts that have not been addressed. Not to mention impacts on our city's infrastructure. When you think about how inhospitable the McDowwell Blvd. corridor is ... do we want more of this? What do you want your city to be? These proposed projects, like Dutra, have had very little if any due process. The residents are simply left out in the cold. I urge all to be even more actively involved in not, just a stinky plant but, all planning and future development in Petaluma. No one should be asleep at the wheel. Projects should adhere to our community standards not developer's standards. For more info go to: petalumaneighborhoodassociation.org

I live in Sonoma and am working on stopping the pesticide aerial spray (yes...still on the table) and all the other tools that our Ca. Dept. of Food and Agriculture want to use in Sonoma. If anyone wants to work on this issue, please contact me. Thank you for this site. Valerie Brown has heard from me... Yannick A. Phillips 707-933-0312