Neighborhood Councils Roundup— Crime is down in San Pedro p. 2 Carson Council stays mum on failed gun control resolution p. 5 Macbeth comes up short p. 9 Oktoberfest at Alpine Village ― Much needed tradition, comradery and beer p. 10
Port Approves Another Flawed China Shipping Plan
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Ben Westhoff’s dive into the “deadliest wave of the opioid epidemic” is the most frightening book of the year.
BY CHRIS FARAONE
On March 28, 2001, the members of the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission approved construction of the China Shipping terminal without a proper environmental impact report, in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act. On Oct. 8, 2019 they did it again. The 2001 decision led to a historic lawsuit, which the port lost at a cost of more than $50 million. That, too, could happen again. But first, the original plaintiffs and some allies, represented by Natural Resources Defense Council, have appealed to the Los Angeles City Council, calling on it to “overrule and reject” the port’s decision, and directing it to “negotiate a new agreement… that avoids litigation and keeps the terminal open by making good on past legal agreements.” The first lawsuit led to a 2004 settlement agreement and a 2008 Environmental Impact Report. But in 2015, following a records request from Random Lengths News, the port revealed it had not implemented 11 of the mitigation measures promised in the 2008 EIR, even granting secret waivers to China Shipping. The new supplemental EIR was meant to redress that failure, but has failed to do so. “The goal of this final Supplemental EIR is simple: to sweep under the rug over a decade of the port’s failure to comply with the law,” the NRDC wrote in its comment letter. But under the settlement agreement, “the port is rolling out the carpet for economic losses to the tune of millions of dollars,” which would kick in automatically under the terms of the 2004 agreement, in the case of arbitration. “I should have hauled the port into court four years ago,” NRDC attorney David Pettit said in his public comment. “What we’ve seen is four years of stalling and moving backwards.” Similar sentiments were echoed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which said in its comment letter that “the project should not be allowed to move forward,” after noting that “the
October 24 - November 6, 2019
[See Fentanyl, p. 4]
By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
opioid epidemic. This deal could help push the parties toward settling more than 2,400 similar claims filed across the country. The $260 million settlement will give the Ohio counties badly needed cash and anti-addiction medication.
Plaintiffs Seek City Council Override
Real News, Real People, Really Effective
irst, a spoiler alert: Among the multiple apocalyptic revelations in Ben Westhoff’s Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic is sour news for all hard drug users, from casual weekend abusers to full-time cocaine cowboys. In light of developments presented in this epic book in gruesome and unprecedented fashion, putting questionable substances up your nose, in your veins, or even on your tongue is highly discouraged from here on in. “Any drug where it’s a powder or a pill, you just can’t trust it,” Westhoff said in an interview about his latest project. “There can be fentanyl in anything … [Home drug-testing kits] are getting very sophisticated, and there are websites you can consult, but in terms of going to a party and someone offering you some blow or something like that, it’s over.” Of course, many will not see this book or heed such warnings, and in tens of thousands of cases this year, will steer directly off a cliff. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “among the more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths estimated in 2017, the sharpest increase occurred among deaths related to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (other synthetic narcotics) with more than 28,400 overdose deaths.” When he started this endeavor nearly four Between 2011 and 2017, there was an average of 464 years ago, Westhoff couldn’t have imagined deaths from accidental opioid overdoses in Los Angeles those statistics. Fentanyl showed up and kicked County. There were over 47,000 opioid overdose deaths in the hinges off a prior psychedelic focus that the United States in 2017. That’s more deaths than are caused turns up in trace amounts throughout the by automobile accidents or firearm-related homicides. book but that is overshadowed by the Just this past week, 18 pounds of fentanyl was seized by eponymous grim reaper. Quoting a CDC report, Westhoff notes, “in 2013 the ‘third authorities in Santa Ana — enough to create four million lethal wave’ of the opioid epidemic began.” doses with an estimated street value of more than $1.25 million. And “because of fentanyl, it is the The seizure yielded almost half the amount of fentanyl confiscated by most deadly one yet.” Focusing on authorities in the county during all of 2018 — a sign the drug is rapidly urban Missouri in one especially becoming a substantial public threat. harrowing chapter, he reports: “In On Oct. 21, two counties in Ohio and four drug companies agreed to a 2012, St. Louis saw 92 opioid$260 million settlement in the landmark lawsuit over responsibility for the related deaths, a number that
[See Port Flaws, p. 2]
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