Clean Water Act Enforcement
We believe clean water is a human right and our ancestral waterways are alive.
Since 2009, throughout Ventura County, along its coast, up the Santa Clara River, and into the Calleguas Creek, Mugu Lagoon, and Ormond Beach watersheds, we have entered into, monitored, and enforced our legal settlements, initiated new citizen suits against, and/or went into trial against over 14 dirty companies operating on over 350 total acres. These resource intensive efforts stopped toxic discharges of metals, E. coli, and trash into inland and coastal waters from industrial facilities such as scrap metal yards, waste transfer stations, electric generating facilities, automobile dismantling yards, and the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park.
Auto Dismantling Yard Storm Water Clean Water Act Litigation:
In 2012, VCK secured water quality protections for the Santa Clara River and underlying groundwater aquifers from multiple automobile dismantling and scrap metal companies operating their facilities on 37 acres off Mission Rock Road in Santa Paula, California through settlement agreements filed in federal court. The decrees mandate compliance with applicable surface and groundwater water quality standards, and require groundwater monitoring of infiltrating storm water.
Six Flags Magic Mountain Pollution
In 2011 we were shocked when a Magic Mountain employee informed Wishtoyo and our Ventura Coastkeeper Program that he was instructed to wash trash down the amusement park's storm drains after hours. Our stream team responded to the whistle blower's concerns about the park's pollution impact on the Santa Clara River with a site investigation, and discovered Magic Mountain labeled trash and souvenir items lining the Santa Clara River's side channels from the park's three discharge points all the way to their confluences with the Santa Clara's mainstem. Subsequent sampling during storm events and Magic Mountain's own stormwater sampling results also demonstrated exceptionally toxic levels of metals such as copper, zinc, aluminum, and iron spewing from Magic Mountain's discharge points.
In April 2012, Wishtoyo, Ventura Coastkeeper, and partners Los Angeles Waterkeeper and Friends of the Santa Clara River, initiated a Clean Water Act citizen suit enforcement action to abate this egregious pollution from the 260 acre amusement park. In December 2014, after almost three years of hard fought, resource intensive litigation to protect the Santa Clara River and Pacific Ocean from Six Flags Magic Mountain’s discharges of polluted storm water containing trash and toxic levels of metals, we prevailed on our motion for summary judgment on our major substantive claims. The Court finding Magic Mountain in violation of the Clean Water Act for its toxic discharges paved the way for a promising settlement in 2015 to ensure the Santa Clara and Pacific Ocean are protected from toxic discharges of metals and trash. Under the agreement filed in federal court, Six Flags must treat its polluted discharges to legal limits or infiltrate its stormwater to groundwater.
E.J. Harrison & Sons Storm Water Pollution Case:
In 2011, VCK settled its Clean Water Act storm water case with E.J. Harrison & Sons’ Saticoy trash hauling facility. The settlement requires the construction of additional treatment infrastructure to ensure the Facility’s discharges comply with water quality standards and protect the ecological, recreational, and cultural uses of the Santa Clara River and Ventura’s Coast for pollutants like e. coli that threaten the health of surfers, beach goers, Chumash Native Americans, and the general public who utilize the Santa Clara River and Ventura's coast for recreational and cultural activities.