State Inspectors Make Return Visit as Construction Continues at YFZ Ranch
 
The Eldorado Success
 
Investigators for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality paid a return trip to the YFZ Ranch on Monday, April 26, 2004 to address a number of violations of the state's environmental code. Ricky Anderson, director of the TCEQ Region 8 office in San Angelo, told the Success Tuesday that a number of his personnel carried a series of inspections and verified some water and air quality violations.

Anderson said that the cement plant operating just north of the construction site was in violation of the state's air quality standards and that it was ordered to be shut down until corrective measures could be taken. Also, violations of the on-site septic system were identified as well as a failure to obtain a permit to for construction related to storm water discharge.

Anderson explained that concerns regarding emissions from generators located near a large 3-building complex appear not to be a violation of his agency's rules. "The engines aren't of sufficient horsepower to require an air quality permit," Anderson stated.

He went on to say that YFZ Ranch officials indicated a "great desire to be compliant with state rules."

Meanwhile, the Success obtained aerial photos Tuesday which reveal that construction at the YFZ is far from complete. Foundation work appears to be underway on a large structure just north of the current 3-building complex. And, a site adjacent to the new construction appears to have been cleared of brush and top soil.

The ongoing saga at the YFZ came into sharper focus last week when Salt Lake City, UT attorney Rodney Parker confirmed for the Success that the ranch is affiliated with the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) a sect of the Mormon Church based on the Utah/Arizona border in the twin cities of Hildale and Colorado City. The fundamentalist group broke with the mainline Mormon Church over a hundred years ago when it turned away from the practice of plural marriages (polygamy) in order to obtain statehood for Utah.

Sheriff David Doran told the Success this week that conversations he has had with David Allred indicate that the man's story about the YFZ becoming a hunting retreat may be changing. "He says that in the beginning the ranch was planned as a corporate hunting retreat but that the plans are evolving," Doran said of Allred.

For his part, Allred has made no public statement and declines to talk to the Success, or any other media outlet.
 
MyEldorado.net
Originally published April 29, 2004
 
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