Residents file lawsuit over water By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review September 8, 2004 Five Half Moon Bay residents are suing Nurserymen's Exchange, claiming one of the area's largest employers is pumping water into a nearby ditch, causing erosion on neighboring property. It is the second water-related issue recently that has some pointing fingers at Nurserymen's Exchange. Last week an environmental scientist for San Mateo County said the nursery might be responsible for nitrates that have been leeching into area groundwater, making it undrinkable. The group of residents bringing the lawsuit, due in court Sept. 20, claims that runoff from Nurserymen's Exchange in 2003 was illegally pumped into the Naples Ditch, causing erosion that resulted in significant property loss. The ditch, which is also defined as a riparian habitat by some agencies, is on privately owned land. The residents have accumulated evidence that they say suggests the ditch was manmade sometime in the last 40 years and was not always a stream. A fire hydrant that sits on one side of the ditch is prominent among the evidence that they're relying on to show that the ditch wasn't always there. The hydrant was installed in 1964, according to markings on the apparatus, and the assumption is that there is no logical reason for a fire hydrant to be installed in such an awkward place. Furthermore, the residents argue that the water is untreated and is being pumped into Naples Ditch illegally. Lt. Brian Arnold of the California Department of Fish and Game disagrees. He doesn't believe the water is contaminated or being pumped. "As long as they're not contaminating the water as it goes out, there's nothing they need from CDFG to authorize that water to flow out," he said. "It's not considered a discharge because it's water runoff." If water is contaminated before being released into Naples Ditch, it would come under the jurisdiction of the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The issue is complicated and no single agency appears to have jurisdiction. "So many agencies and no one says this is my thing to fix," Mayor Mike Ferreira said. However, he thinks the problem is in many ways beyond government control. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Build a huge Hoover Dam up there to stop it? You can't do that." He believes the ditch was there as early as 1943 and provided photographs from a University of California, Berkeley Web site that depicts the coast that year. "It looks to me like the ditch was there in '43," he said, adding that other factors are at play that may be causing the flooding. Among those potential contributing sources are two culverts the water flows through beneath a pair of homes that sit above the ditch. The culverts shrink the water's path. "The thing goes under two houses, which was really not the world's greatest planning," Ferreira said. Some are also saying that the erosion could be the result of other water flow problems. An apparent lack of maintenance on the ditch has caused significant overgrowth that would undoubtedly impede water flows, and a right-angle turn at the entrance to the ditch (west of the highway) seems to force water turbulently towards the land that is being washed away. Beyond those potential problems, it's unclear how many runoff sources the ditch serves. The excessive water flows through the ditch have subsided since Nurserymen's Exchange began diverting the water through an eight-inch pipe it installed last April to reclaim more water on its property, but residents aren't convinced the problem is solved. Sandy Paoli, one of the residents involved in the claim, said Nurserymen's Exchange has known about residents' concerns for some time and continually refuses to provide her with a master drainage plan. Without that document in hand, Paoli said she has no reason to believe that water flows will remain at the current low level. She contends that the water isn't excessive runoff, but is actually diverted by Nurserymen's Exchange into the ditch. "They had no permission to divert that water, especially at our expense," she said. That water comes into the ditch with "all the fertilizers, all the pesticides and all the plants," she said. "Now you wonder why you have high nitrate levels." Her husband, John Paoli, said the company has done a lot of good for the community, but impunity doesn't follow good deeds. "They hide behind this shield of having a good reputation," he said. "We would have never gotten this far if there was a spirit of cooperation with everybody." Because of what they say has become futile efforts, they're now suing for $5,000 in small claims court for erosion and property loss. Nurserymen's Exchange General Counsel Don Mendel acknowledged the pending claim, but declined to elaborate on the details. "We do not believe there is a basis for the claim and we'll wait to hear the claim on its merits in small claims court," he said. Home