Community Concerns

The proposed Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria casino near Rohnert Park would be a huge, Las Vegas-style operation, completely incompatible with the life-style enjoyed by the residents of the area. Residents are understandably worried about the detrimental effects of a large tribal gaming project such as this, which will impact local and regional public infrastructure, including highways, streets, transit systems, water, wastewater, energy systems and resources, affordable housing, schools, social services and emergency services. Such a development would have substantial off-reservation negative environmental impacts and would place unreasonable burdens on the public infrastructure, to be paid for by County taxpayers, residents, visitors and businesses.

TRAFFIC: The Sonoma County Transportation Agency has issued a strong letter of concern regarding the impact of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino project on the area traffic. The area, which sits midway between two of Sonoma County's largest cities, already suffers from severe traffic problems. Preliminary information indicates that the proposed casino would overwhelm Highway 101 capacity by generating 30,000 additional trips per day, and would back up traffic for three miles in each direction during peak hours. Also impacted would be major alternate routes that currently help relieve congestion on Highway 101. A significant project for Highway 101 for which state funding has already been received, would have to be delayed, according to the County. Surface streets would have to be upgraded and widened, not just in Rohnert Park, but also in the County. These costs will be borne by taxpayers.

WATER: It would be difficult to find a more inappropriate site for a casino than this site with regard to water. The location is right in the middle of an area that has already been demonstrated in court to be in substantial groundwater overdraft. In fact, the casino site chosen by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria is part of the first litigation under California's Clean Water Act (SB610) against the City of Rohnert Park - litigation that resulted in a loss for Rohnert Park. The Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Basin and other adjoining groundwater basins are seriously overdrafted and further threatened by the continual loss of areas of natural recharge such as this site is.

According to the EPA, the Rohnert Park casino would pump 4.5% of all current and future groundwater from the Southern Santa Rosa Plain - a huge amount of water! Yet according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, "existing supplies are not adequate to meet water demands for people, for farms, and for the environment" in Sonoma County. The DOI concluded that Sonoma County has a "substantial conflict potential" over water supplies and ranks the County's water resource crisis in the same category as the Klamath Basin, where farmers, tribes, and the federal and state government are locked in a bitter feud over limited water supplies and competing water rights.

The Rohnert park casino is the largest commerical development in Sonoma County's history. It would reguire millions of gallons of water each day, but a sufficient and sustainable water supply does not exist for the project, particularly in light of the region's prevailing water crisis and the current and future water needs of local residents. For this reason alone, the project should not be allowed to proceed.

WASTEWATER: At the August 23, 3005, City Council meeting, Rohnert Park's Chief Engineer advised the City Council that there is not sufficient sewer capacity to add the casino project to the system. According to a memo dated September 8, 2005, from the FIGR to the City of Rohnert Park, this means the tribe will revert to its plans to build a two to ten acre wastewater treatment plant near the Laguna de Santa Rosa. According to the Scoping Report prepared by the National Indian Gaming Commission, the tribe plans to dump wastewater into the Laguna de Santa Rosa, using the Laguna de Santa Rosa, the largest complex of freshwater wetlands on the North Coast, as a toilet.

A report prepared for the Geysers Pipeline project indicates that this could be more than 500,000 gallons of wastewater per day! Although treated, the wastewater would still contain heavy metals, nitrates and nitrites, antibiotics and hormones, mutated antibiotic-resistant strands of human DNA that can bind with our own DNA upon ingestion, as well as such organisms as cryptosporidium and giardia. This additional influx of wastewater would impact not only the Laguna de Santa Rosa, but the Russian River and, eventually, the Pacific Ocean.

AIR POLLUTION: The impact to the region's air quality would be significant. According to the Clean Air Task Force, Sonoma County is already considered in the 70% percentile for poor air quality. The danger from diesel soot here is 250 times that of the national average. The 30,000+ vehicles per day and the scores of bus trips per day would worsen an already critically bad situation, and threaten the health of the hundreds of low-income children who live less than 1/4 mile from the site.

LOCAL BUSINESS: Even Donald Trump, himself a casino owner, has said that local businesses suffer in casino towns because they lose customer dollars to the casino. With an insight born from first-hand experience, Mr. Trump has stated that people will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money that they would normally spend to buy a refrigerator or a car.

Across the country, studies have shown that wherever a casino opens, local businesses are, for the most part, negatively affected. According to one report, "...local businesses suffer as discretionary dollars are drained from the economy and as they and their communities experience the social fall-out that typically accompanies legalized gambling."

With the increase in crime, and the change in character from dairy farms and vineyards to a casino town, local tourism, an important business in Sonoma County, would be reduced, not increased, as the tribe claims. In fact, casino gambling, while a huge commercial success, has been shown nationwide to be a dismal failure in promoting tourism and economic development; only 5% of a casino's patrons travel more than 100 miles to reach the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino, confirming Station Casinos CFO Glenn Christenson's statement that "These (tribal gaming) markets by and large are local's markets."( Las Vegas Sun, October 6, 2003) The traffic problems would actually deter the tourists who do come to this area for its bucolic pleasures.

SCHOOLS: Our children are the first generation to have been raised in a society where gambling is widely-prevalent and generally accepted. The old taboos have fallen, and the result is that children are gambling in rapidly-increasing numbers. In fact, gambling is more prevalent among adolescents than the general adult population, and gambling amongst college students has grown by double-digits!

No casino should be anywhere near a school, yet within a two mile radius of the proposed Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria casino site, there are seventeen pre-schools, nine elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools. A good portion of these schools are located within one mile of the site, with the closest schools, one elementary, one middle school and one high school being about one-half mile from the site. Sonoma State University is only three miles from the site.

HOMES AND FAMILIES: "The "nice" side of town in Atlantic City is a stretch one block wide and less than 10 blocks long. This is what tourists see: velvet-soaked casinos, a Boardwalk lined with shops and concession stands, faux-everything. The rest of the city is a ghetto--cracked concrete coated with broken bottles and refuse. With the exception of pawn shops, which are plentiful, storefronts are mostly boarded up." From The Luck Business, by Professor Robert Goodman of Amherst College.

There are similar reports from Highlands, CA, home of the San Manuel Casino. There is no longer a grocery store in the town, a shopping center has closed and stands empty, and the only new businesses are 99 Cent stores and pawn shops. Homes in Highland's formerly middle-class neighborhoods sport iron bars on the windows and doors, and prostitutes line the streets in residential neighborhoods that lead to the casino.

This is what we can logically expect for our community. The area surrounding the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino site to the North and East is mostly Rural Residential. Some of the residences are working farms, but the majority are single-family homes on parcels from one acre and up. Many of the homes in the immediate area are located only feet or yards from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria casino site and/or its entry ways. Less than 1/4 of a mile from the casino site are five low-income housing complexes, with many small children, including Rancho Verde Mobile Home Park, which is on the southern boundary of the site, and separated from it by a board fence. This mobile home park is filled with families with young children. Nothing could more inappropriate than a casino only yards away from their front door.

Within a half-mile radius of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria casino site, there are an estimated 1,000 residences. Within a two-mile radius,there are an estimated 7,000 residences, and at three miles, the number leaps to 20,000-plus, encompassing most of the City of Rohnert Park, as well as parts of Santa Rosa.

Thank you, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, for bringing casino gambling to our doorsteps!