California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
John D. Sweeney and Point Buckler Club LLC are facing an Administrative Civil Liabilities fine of $2,828,000, imposed by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, for failing to obtain a water quality certification for discharging fill material into Suisan Marsh. The unauthorized discharging and other unpermitted activities are violations of the Regional Water Board’s San Francisco Bay Water Quality Basin Plan and the federal Clean Water Act.
The Regional Water Board contends that it considered a variety of factors in arriving at the penalty, including the nature, circumstances, extent and gravity of the violations, the history of the violator, and ability to pay. The civil liability amount is based on the volume of the discharge and the number of days of violation.
Sweeney purchased Point Buckler Island, a 39-acre property in Suisan Marsh in 2011, with the intent to build kiteboarding facilities. The island was operated as a managed wetland for duck hunting more than 25 years ago but, due to a lack of maintenance, the island eventually reverted to tidal marsh. When Sweeney purchased the property, it had not been used or managed in more than 20 years.
Sweeney’s purported illegal activities began soon after he purchased the property including directly filling three acres of tidal marsh, draining or cutting off tidal circulation to an additional 27 acres, destroying or degrading marsh habitat, impacting water quality, and damaging or killing wetland vegetation. In 2014, he built a 4,710-foot-long levee around the island. Sweeney also transferred the title of the island to Point Buckler Club LLC in 2014.
Sweeney continued to fill the interior tidal marsh with various edifices including the kiteboarding facilities and helicopter pads in spite of notification to obtain permits and cease the unpermitted work. The Water Board’s original Administrative Civil Liability complaint, filed earlier this year, estimated 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.
In August, the Regional Water Board issued a Cleanup and Abatement Order with the intent of restoring the tidal marsh. Sweeney and the Club would be required to provide necessary compensation, such as additional restored wetlands, for the unpermitted impacts. Until the tidal wetlands are restored, there is ongoing harm to sensitive species in the Bay-Delta ecosystem that includes destroyed or degraded critical habitat for salmonids and longfin smelt, and decreased nutrient cycling important to Delta smelt. Suisun Marsh provides critical habitat to migratory birds and threatened and endangered species including 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.
