FILLMORE : Company Sued Over River Bulldozing

The Ventura County district attorney’s office on Monday filed a civil lawsuit against a Fillmore citrus company, alleging that it broke environmental laws by bulldozing the banks of the Santa Clara River without first getting permission.

Workers for the William Shiells Co., over a two-month period beginning in late 1989, bulldozed about a half-mile of stream bed on both sides of the river near the company’s citrus grove east of Fillmore, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Schwartz.

The unauthorized work cleared broad areas of native vegetation and destroyed habitat used by the endangered least Bell’s vireo, the complaint alleges.

“It’s pretty dramatic,” Schwartz said. “There are whole areas of dense vegetation that were just denuded.”

The Shiells company is named in the suit, along with former general manager James Shiells and foreman Eugene Wren, Schwartz said. The defendants face penalties of up to $150,000 for unlawful business practices and may be ordered to restore the damaged habitat, he said.

State Department of Fish and Game officials noticed workers bulldozing the area in February, 1990, Schwartz said. They alerted prosecutors in the Consumer and Environmental Protection Division, who filed suit after more than two years of investigation, he said.

Shiells officials said they removed the vegetation to increase air circulation among the citrus groves so the trees would not get frost damage, Schwartz said.

Shiells officials could not be reached for comment late Monday.