California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board (Water Board) has issued a tentative cleanup order and complaint, with a penalty of $4.6 million, to John D. Sweeney and Point Buckler Club, LLC, for unauthorized work and harm to tidal wetlands in Suisun Marsh. The cleanup order includes requirements to restore wetlands functions and abate harm to beneficial uses.
Sweeney and the Point Buckler Club, LLC (PBC) allegedly conducted numerous construction activities without authorization from the Water Board. Point Buckler Island, located in Suisun Marsh in Solano County, has been outfitted as a kite-surfing site catering to Silicon Valley and Bay Area executives.
The Water Board alleges that Sweeney and PBC excavated and filled tidal wetlands to build a perimeter levee, filled tidal wetlands inboard of the levee to build amenities that include helicopter pads, a lounge area and a toilet facility, and the installation of a dock in the Bay. The Water Board’s Administrative Civil Liability Complaint estimates that over 16,000 cubic yards of tidal marsh was excavated and that over 9,000 cubic yards of fill was placed in waters of the State and United States without authorization. A board hearing on these matters is scheduled for August 10.
The levee construction has blocked tidal flow to about 29 acres of tidal wetland on Point Buckler Island.
According to the Water Board, the wetlands on the interior of the levee are highly degraded. The loss of tidal wetlands at the island are having a direct, negative impact on beneficial uses of waters and wetlands in the Suisun Marsh, which provides critical habitat to migratory birds and threatened and endangered species including Delta smelt, Steelhead Central California Coast Distinct Population Segment (DPS), Green Sturgeon DPS, Sacramento Winter-Run/Central Valley Spring-Run Chinook Salmon as well as the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse and California Ridgeway’s Rail.
In March Sweeney sued the Water Board and the judge ordered the state to rescind an abatement order. Sweeney has also asked the court to disallow any further abatement orders from the Water Board.
“The regional board has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to try and find any way to steal the land as it’s a key island in the Delta tunnel plan,” Sweeney said. He alleges the water board in Solano County Superior Court is trying to “strong arm” the club for filing a lawsuit.
The Water Board has specified that Sweeney and Point Buckler Club, LLC, have allegedly violated Prohibition 9 of the San Francisco Bay Basin Plan and Clean Water Action section 301 for filling waters of the State and United States to construct a levee at the Island and to have violated Clean Water Act section 401 for failing to obtain a permit (401 Certification) for the unauthorized work. The tentative Cleanup Order would require future work to reestablish the tidal wetlands at the Island and provide compensatory mitigation for wetlands loss. The Cleanup Order includes provisions to submit and implement interim corrective action and wetland restoration plans.
“The regional water board has a vendetta against the club and simply wants to take the land for it to use as a restoration site without buying it,” Sweeney said.
