Environment Center Opens Issues Hotline

With a few taps on a touch-tone phone, Ventura County residents can get information about local environmental issues.

Working with several local activist groups, the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara has created a toll-free hotline for Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The 24-hour-a-day service aims to inform area residents about projects the center says threaten the local environment.

Dial the number--(800) 808-3989--and a recorded message offers a series of topics, relayed in English or Spanish. Callers can listen to details of proposed development projects throughout the area and get the times and locations of environmentally oriented meetings.

For Ventura County residents, the hotline offers information on Hidden Creek Ranch, a 3,221-home development just north of Moorpark, and the Newhall Ranch project, which could put more than 24,000 new homes in Los Angeles County. The brief messages, each about two minutes long and accessed by punching different numbers on the phone, also tell listeners how to get in touch with local groups opposing the developments.