On behalf or the entire AEP membership,
President Kent Norton expresses his condolences to the family and
informs them that AEP has established the Al Reynolds Memorial
Lifetime Achievement Award - click here to download
Kent's letter.
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Albert Field Reynolds
1921 – 2006
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Al Reynolds at his home in the Santa Ynez Valley |
By: Dev Vrat, AICP,
AEP Vice President
Albert F.
Reynolds, Charter President of the Association of Environmental
Professionals died peacefully in his Murrieta home with his loved ones
at his side on January 4, 2006. During the 2004 State Conference in
Los Angeles AEP presented a lifetime Achievement Award to Al for his
contributions to AEP and his work in the protection of the California
environment.
“Al was extremely
intelligent and the most courageous man I have ever known,” said
Albert McCurdy, Reynold’s first Deputy Director of Environmental
Resources in Santa Barbara County. “Al had a deep understanding of
the environment and was decades ahead of his time in terms of
sustainability. In public hearings Al’s presence commanded respect and
all who observed him were awed. In addition, Al had a great sense of
humor and delivered jokes with a flashing smile and warm sparkling
eyes.”
Al was born May 2,
1921 in Derby, Maine and grew up in a little piece of heaven called
Ebeeme Lake. His grandfather taught young Albert how to catch trout in
the brooks, how to walk like a deer along the fern-lined trails, and
cultivated Al’s love of nature in the Maine forest.
In 1942, Reynolds
joined the United States Air Corps and became an aviator. He served as
a bomber pilot on the U.S.S. Hornet during World War II and was
awarded numerous medals including the Distinguished Flying Cross for:
"Heroism and extraordinary achievement during operations against
Japanese forces in Guam and Yap from July 20 to August 4, 1944... His
skill and airmanship and courageous devotion to duty in the face of
heavy and accurate antiaircraft fire were in keeping with the best
tradition of the United States Naval Service."
Al's credo was to
resist all forms of tyranny. When World War II ended, Al realized that
the next battle was against communism. He joined the US Foreign
Service and in 1950 was sent to Korea. There he organized rescue
operations for U.S. pilots shot down over North Korea. He was awarded
the Bronze Star by President Truman, a rare commendation for a
civilian. Al spent the next twenty years with the Foreign Service, as
a Diplomatic Foreign Service Officer, working in Japan, Germany, and
Mexico.
Al retired from
the federal government and devoted his love of nature to become a
pioneer in the environmental movement. Following the adoption of the
California Environmental Quality Act in 1970, Al accepted a position
as the head of Santa Barbara County’s fledgling Office of
Environmental Quality (OEQ) and later served as the County’s Director
of Environmental Resources. In this capacity Al gained the respect of
environmentalists and foes alike.
Under Al’s
guidance, the OEQ first drafted the Santa Barbara County CEQA
Implementation Guidelines and local significance thresholds, later to
be adopted at the State level. Al worked to streamline CEQA through
simple exemptions for small projects. OEQ also drafted AEP’s
Professional Code of Ethics. An outspoken proponent of independent
environmental analysis, Al fought to maintain separate environmental
review function from the County’s permit approval process. OEQ
environmental documents were formally transmitted to the Planning
Department under Al’s signature with a note, “the discretionary review
process may now proceed.” Al repeatedly stressed the need for “full
public disclosure” and directed his staff to convey complex
information to the public clearly in easily understandable language.
Al was a visionary
in terms of living within available resources. He grew to became a
symbol to conservationists of the Santa Barbara County’s concern for
the environment. He hired expert geologists to develop safe yield
determinations for major Santa Barbara County’s ground water basins so
that the County could live within its resources. He disclosed the
potential effects of approving development based on wells in perched
groundwater. Project level EIRs produced by the OEQ were subsequently
used as the basis for County decision makers to deny projects which
would overdraft groundwater basins. Al also worked on major down
zonings of the Santa Ynez Valley and Lompoc Valley so that the County
could live within its resources and development in these areas would
be sustainable. OEQ analyzed the growth inducing impacts of the
importation of State Water to the County and voters rejected State
Water in two referendums. The unmistakable agricultural resource and
rural land protection visible in Santa Barbara County is the direct
legacy of Al Reynolds.
In addition to
planning for sustainability, Al also managed the environmental review
process for numerous major projects which threatened Santa Barbara
County. When Western LNG and the Public Utilities Commission proposed
to reward Santa Barbara’s preservation of the pristine Gaviota Coast
with an LNG terminal, it was Reynolds who produced environmental
documentation which would disclose major earthquake faults and the
sacred Western Gate of the Chumash leading to withdrawal of the major
industrial project. Reynolds and his staff also worked with the
federal and state government to “comanage” offshore oil and gas
development in the County, consolidating onshore support facilities at
two locations and developing sophisticated mitigation programs
including permit compliance programs, socioeconomic and coastal
resource enhancement programs, and periodic permit reopeners to ensure
state of the art environmental protection. The OEQ developed early air
quality dispersion and complex ozone formation models disclosing that
marine tanker oil storage tank vapors would lead to major air quality
impacts in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Reynolds fought for
marine tanker vapor recovery systems. To avoid tanker spills he pushed
for double hulled tankers and formed the Joint Industry Government
Pipeline Working Group to study alternatives to marine tankers. Using
his former political networks, Al was able to summon Governor Brown,
US Senators and the Secretary of the Interior to Santa Barbara to
personally deliver the findings of his environmental analysis. These
efforts led to the elimination of marine terminals in the Santa
Barbara Channel in favor of land pipeline oil transportation to both
Los Angeles and Texas refineries.
Opponents of Al
Reynolds once complained to the Grand Jury labeling him the most
powerful man in Santa Barbara County. In Al’s formal response he
wrote, “I have no authority whatsoever over policy and development
decisions in the County. I am solely responsible for the preparation
environmental documents providing full disclosure of the environmental
effects of proposed actions. It is this full public disclosure that is
the power.”
When Al retired
from Santa Barbara County in 1981, the Chairman of the Board of
Supervisors and numerous other supporters wept openly during his
farewell hearing. Al moved on to form Reynolds Associates, a resource
management consulting firm.
Al and his beloved
wife of 60 years, Ruth, lived at their Alisal Ranch in the Santa Ynez
Valley until 2004, when they retired to Murrieta. Al’s daughter Kim
fondly remembers her dad, “He would take us on nature walks to
Figueroa Mountain, Point Conception and the Central Coast. He
instilled in us his love of the land and environmental resource
protection.”
Al is survived
by his wife Ruth Derby Reynolds, daughters Terri Reynolds Ryan, and
Kimberly Reynolds Danell, and son Richard Derby Reynolds. Kim
concluded, “Al also has ten grandchildren who will also miss their
grandfather.”
Dev Vrat is currently a Senior Urban and Environmental Planner with
URS Corporation in Los Angeles. Dev worked with Al Reynolds during in
the 1970s as an Oil and Gas Energy Specialist in Santa Barbara
County’s Office of Environmental Quality
