July 19, 2001
Contact: Drew Bohan: 805-563-3377; Vicki Clark: 805-963-1622

SOUTH COAST POLLUTER FILES HARASSMENT LAWSUIT AGAINST SANTA BARBARA ENVIRONMENTALISTS

SANTA BARBARA, CA - In a dramatic turn of events, Halaco Engineering Co., a smelting company sued earlier this year by Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper and Environmental Defense Center, has filed a trespass lawsuit against these two groups and ChannelKeeper's Executive Director, Drew Bohan. "I'm not surprised," said Bohan, "This type of harassment has been Halaco's most effective weapon against regulatory agencies for the last three decades. It may have worked against the agencies, but it's not going to work against us."

In May, a federal district court judge rejected Halaco's efforts to dismiss the citizen enforcement suit filed against the facility by the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) on behalf of the Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper (SBCK). The groups filed the suit in January to force Halaco to comply with environmental laws that regulate toxic chemicals, which have been leaking into the air, water and ground from the metal smelting facility next to Ormond Beach in Oxnard for over three decades.

The lawsuit against Halaco charges the company with violating the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, laws enacted to protect public health. In 1980, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found Halaco in violation of the Clean Water Act for its discharge of waste to the Ormond Beach Wetlands. Two decades have passed and Halaco has still not fixed the problem. Halaco has also been emitting air pollutants in violation of the Clean Air Act since at least 1990. The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) has received hundreds of complaints about Halaco's fumes by neighbors of the facility; in fact, APCD has received more complaints about Halaco than any other company in Ventura County.

Almost immediately after the federal district court denied Halaco's motions, Halaco's attorneys announced that Halaco would sue for trespass. For the last three decades, Halaco has piped contaminated wastewater from its facility into a series of waste ponds that are immediately adjacent to Ormond Wetlands and Ormond Beach. Periodically, Halaco scoops metal sludge out of the waste ponds and piles it around the ponds. The slag pile thus created now stands 40 feet tall, a lunar landscape rising from the wetlands.
Halaco's trespass claim is based in large part on the fact that Mr. Bohan walked from the beach to the edge of the slag pile and climbed to the top of it to get a view of the surrounding landscape. There is no fence around the slag pile, nor is there even a sign indicating that Halaco's property line begins at the slag pile. Moreover, for decades Halaco has allowed people, mostly children, to walk on the slag heap without suing anyone for trespass.
According to Vicki Clark, attorney for EDC, "We're confident the judge is going to see Halaco's tactic in filing this trespass lawsuit for precisely what it is - a blatant attempt at intimidation."

Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the ecological health of the Santa Barbara Channel, its watersheds and habitats. Currently a project of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), ChannelKeeper uses advocacy, education, scientific study and enforcement to insure the well being of the Channel. For more information, call (805) 563-3377. The EDC is a non-profit, public interest environmental law firm serving California's Central Coast since 1977. For more information, contact EDC at (805) 963-1622.