When Pacific Gas and Electric announced plans to create a nuclear power plant on Bodega Head, there was no Coastal Commission and no California Environmental Quality Act. The Public Utilities Commission okayed the permit, subject to approval from the Atomic Energy Commission. Then Rose Gaffney got mad. Even friends of the feisty landholder called her stubborn and irascible. Gaffney wasn't keen on selling her land, and eventually she got riled about the whole project.
Locals credit the prickly rancher as the one who really galvanized public opinion against the plant.
Other opponents included Hazel Mitchell, a Bodega Bay waitress who was shocked when hundreds of people signed her petition against the plant, and Doris Sloan, later a professor of environmental science at Berkeley. Geologists from the Kennedy administration confirmed the fault. The dramatic 8.5 Anchorage quake in 1964 caused slippage on Bodega Head, which put the idea to rest for good. It's a park alright, but not an atomic one. All Rights Reserved.