Santa Cruz County Announces Additional Settlement Details

Santa Cruz CA

08 December, 2021

11:47 AM

Description

Press release from the County of Santa Cruz: Dec. 8, 2021 Santa Cruz County is pleased to announce additional enrollment options and public forums for residents with large wood debris remaining after the CZU Fire cleanup and tree removal conducted by PG&E. Under the terms of a settlement reached with the County, PG&E agreed to implement a wood waste removal program and provide additional measures meant to protect the community from the threat and impact of wildfires. The County filed suit with the Public Utilities Commission following complaints from impacted residents that PG&E's vegetation management and hazardous tree removal practices following the CZU Fire were insufficient, including failing to remove large wood debris resulting from tree removal activities, creating additional burdens for landowners. "After hearing from our constituents, it became clear that we needed to take strong action to remedy PG&E's neglectful actions during the recovery process. We look forward to PG&E working more collaboratively with the County and our residents in the future to assure that their needs are met following major disaster events and outages," Supervisor Bruce McPherson said. "Our role as elected officials is to look out for the interests of residents when they need us most. We're very pleased to see this suit come to a positive resolution on behalf of those affected by the CZU Fire, and happy that we could negotiate additional measures to help reduce risk the wildfire throughout our community," Supervisor Ryan Coonerty said. Under terms of the settlement, PG&E will notify customers regarding the opt-in wood waste removal program, which expires January 31, 2022. The County created an enrollment form on the Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience (OR3) website, at https://www.santacruzcounty.us/FireRecovery/DebrisRemoval/PGEWoodHaulProgram. aspx. Once completed, the form will automatically be sent to PG&E. Additionally, the County and PG&E will host two informational town hall meetings for residents to ask questions about the wood debris removal program. (Town hall attendance is not necessary to enroll.) Wood Debris Removal Program Town Hall 1 WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 14 - 6 p.m. LINK: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8725... Webinar ID: 872 5641 7705 Wood Debris Removal Program Town Hall 2 WHEN: Tuesday, Jan. 12 - 6 p.m. LINK: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8736... Webinar ID: 873 6906 5386 Additional settlement terms include PG&E assisting the County with vegetation management activities and wildfire mitigation efforts, a $75,000 PG&E grant to the County to create shaded fuel breaks and/or firebreaks in the CZU Fire footprint, the addition of two indoor Community Resource Centers (CRC) to be used for Public Safety Power Shutoff events, and the installation of 2 to 4 new high-definition wildfire cameras in Santa Cruz County through the Alert Wildfire program. The location of the CRCs, hazardous fuel management and wildfire cameras is to be determined. This press release was produced by the County of Santa Cruz. The views expressed here are the author's own.