The lawyer for the Mariposa Land Company says an environmental group is on a “fishing expedition” and does not have any evidence that polluted rainwater originates on Mariposa’s property.
By Hans Laetz/Special to The Malibu Times
The owners of a small industrial complex along Malibu Creek have fired back a legal salvo at a Malibu-based environmental group, accusing activist Marcia Hanscom’s group of seeking to “strong-arm property owners into giving up their property.”
An attorney for the Mariposa Land Company said the responsibility for obtaining water runoff permits belongs to the tenant business owners who rent space at the small industrial conclave tucked off Cross Creek Road, and not the landlord. The most prominent tenant is Malibu Masonry Supply, a longstanding rock, sand and business supply seller.
Mariposa Land’s lawyer, Sherman L. Stacey, was reacting to allegations made by an attorney for the Coastal Law Enforcement Action Network. Earlier this month, CLEAN served notice that it might sue Mariposa Land and two associated companies for failing to obtain a wastewater permit for stormwater runoff from the industrial site. CLEAN also threatens to file complaints that Mariposa Land has failed to obtain coastal permits for the tract.
No specific pollution charges were cited by CLEAN in its initial legal notice. But in an interview with The Malibu Times last week, its attorney alleged that tainted runoff enters the creek from a brickyard, car mechanic shop and storage area in the small industrial cluster that lies along the creek just north of the Civic Center Way and Cross Creek Road intersection.
Mariposa Land’s lawyer now has countercharged that the CLEAN complaint makes “only vague reference to ‘industrial wastes’ flowing into Malibu Creek” and fails “to describe in any respect the ‘activity’ from which (CLEAN) claims such industrial wastes emanate.
“You fail to identify even a single pollutant which you claim to be in such rainwater,” Stacey wrote to CLEAN. “Indeed, I believe you are on a fishing expedition and possess not a single shred of evidence that any polluted rainwater originates on Mariposa’s property.”
Stacey said state water quality laws require “facility operators” to obtain permits, which often require treatment or holding areas for rainwater runoff.
Court records indicate that the land the businesses sit on is owned by Mariposa Land Company LTD., the Merritt Adamson Trust and the Mariposa Land Company, which are successors to the Adamson family’s vast Malibu landholdings.
Stacey told CLEAN that Mariposa Land had forwarded CLEAN’s request to the businesses, and pledged to evict any tenants that fail to get state water permits.
The local business owners mentioned declined to comment to The Malibu Times regarding the complaints.
The two sides have two months to negotiate a compromise before any lawsuit could be filed. CLEAN’s attorney said in a Monday interview that the possible lawsuit can be averted if stormwater runoff permits, and a Coastal Commission permit, are obtained by the businesses.
Earlier this year, Hanscom and attorney David Weinsoff of Marin County, using a different Hanscom-led environmental group as plaintiff, successfully challenged billionaire industrialist A. Jerrold Perenchio’s lack of permits for a gated private golf course next to his Malibu Colony house. Perenchio settled by agreeing to deed the private park to government ownership after he and his wife die.