Humboldt Baykeeper, others sue EPA
by Nathan Rushton, 8/26/2006
Four environmental groups, including Humboldt Baykeeper and the Ecological Rights Foundation, filed a lawsuit this week that charges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allowed water polluters too much time to cut contaminants getting into San Francisco Bay and other state waters, which was recently reported in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Humboldt Baykeeper has ongoing legal actions against two Eureka waterfront properties, including Union Pacific, which currently owns the property slated to be purchased by Security National for its Marina Center project, as well as Preston Properties, which owns the former Simpson Timber Co. plywood mill site now used for a flea mart.
Baykeeper’s program Director Pete Nichols has said previously that despite complying with cleanup orders from the state on the waterfront sites, toxins persist and are leaching into Humboldt Bay.
Reached Friday, Alexis Strauss, director of the EPA’s regional water division, said the federal agency received a notice of intent to sue from the groups approximately 60 days ago and was anticipating the legal action.
“Now we are in a formal position to respond,” Strauss said.
Strauss said that the EPA, which approves the state’s water quality standard submittals, will be working with California’s state and nine regional water quality control boards on the compliance schedules for polluters to provide some certainty on the issue.
Strauss said the agency has been sued on several occasions over water quality standards before, but never specifically on the compliance schedule issue.
“I think this is an important one for us to resolve in California,” Strauss said.
Humboldt Baykeeper officials could not be reached by deadline.
Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved.
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