Firm Pleads Guilty to Bulldozing Creek
A south Orange County developer has pleaded guilty to illegally bulldozing a Laguna Niguel creek bed, and another firm faces charges of polluting a flood control channel in San Clemente, a state Department of Fish and Game spokesman said Wednesday.
The developer, Shea Homes of Laguna Niguel, has been ordered to pay a $1,700 fine and make restitution in the form of repairs of damages done to the stream bed. The firm also was placed on one year’s probation by Municipal Judge Blair Barnette.
According to Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Moore, the developer’s crews violated a section of the state code that makes it unlawful to substantially divert or obstruct any bed or bank of a river or stream without permission from the department.
In San Clemente, Moore said, representatives of Lyman’s Ready Mix Concrete Inc. are slated for arraignment in South Orange County Municipal Court on Aug. 26 on charges of polluting portions of the Segunda Desecha Canada flood control channel.
Moore said the penalty for causing such pollution could be a $2,000 fine or one year in jail, or both.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
