The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board on Thursday authorized a referral to the California Attorney General’s Office for judicial civil enforcement against the Vern C. McGaughey Trust, citing more than a decade of unaddressed waste dumping, wetland degradation and missed cleanup deadlines along Little River.The decision followed a two‑hour hearing in which board staff detailed years of failed cleanup deadlines, repeated violation notices, and worsening conditions along Little River, a waterway already listed as impaired under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act for elevated fecal bacteria levels.Assistant Executive Officer John Curtis told the board that the referral is intended to prioritize cleanup and restoration. He said administrative civil liability, the board’s usual enforcement tool, had not produced compliance and could further delay remediation“A site restored is a win for water quality and a win for the people of California,” Curtis said. “When our attempts to compel compliance fail, we are left with few options. This referral keeps the focus on cleanup and restoration rather than penalties.”Photos shown to the board included a tributary cutting through a waste pile and a horse carcass in mapped wetlands. Staff said the property remains out of compliance and continues to threaten water quality at Moonstone Beach, one of Humboldt County’s most heavily used recreation sites.Attorney Ken Bareilles, representing landowner Vern McGaughey, acknowledged unpermitted placement of filter fabric and concrete along the streambank without attaining permits, but argued the underlying cause of the river’s degradation was a decades‑old fish‑habitat project.Neighbor Ray Christie described historic channel maintenance by local families and said the river now flows directly through McGaughey’s property rather than its original channel.“The river is going directly through Vern’s property,” Christie said. “We hunted and fished that river our whole lives and never had problems until the restoration project. I can show you exactly where the channel shifted.”Little River has been listed as impaired for fecal bacteria since 2015, and advocates have long urged stronger enforcement to protect public health and salmon habitat downstream at Moonstone Beach.Michael van Hattem, a senior environmental scientist supervisor with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife who works in the Habitat Conservation Program, spoke of his concerns and asked the regional water board to forward the case to the Attorney General’s Office.“The Little River estuary matters. Given the ongoing harm to Little River and its floodplain, wetlands, sensitive species, habitats, and tributaries, and the responsible party’s refusal to comply with the cleanup order, judicial enforcement of the Water Code is the most appropriate and efficient option,” van Hattem said. “CDFW and our state agencies fully support fixing the issues in Little River once and for all, and that starts with the McGaughey property.”The area where Little River runs into Moonstone Beach remains one of Humboldt County’s most heavily used recreation sites, and the impaired water listing driven by fecal bacteria has persisted since 2015. Jennifer Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Waterkeeper, spoke to the water board about the importance of Little River for recreation and the environmental effects of pollution along the waterway.“Hundreds and hundreds of kids have learned to surf there at Moonstone Beach. I live in McKinleyville, and I have paddled up the Little River myself many times. I have seen the plastic fabric lining the graded banks that have been completely denuded of riparian vegetation. My organization has gotten numerous complaints from members of the community about horse and cattle carcasses in the river and about chunks of that plastic material floating down the river and stuck in the sediment. People will get out of their boats and try to pull it out, but it’s all embedded in rock and the bottom of the river. And we’ve also received numerous complaints from people who have children who experience explosive diarrhea and vomiting after playing in the river or rinsing off their wetsuits in the river,” said Kalt. “Little River also supports spawning coho and other protected species. It’s a really important watershed.”The board voted to approve the resolution to forward the case to the Attorney General’s Office. The board’s decision marks the first time in six years that a North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board case has been elevated to the Attorney General’s Office.Read Original Article
