Thousand Oaks Fined $2.1 Million for Spill

State regulators on Friday slapped the city with a $2.1-million fine--believed to be the largest of its kind in California history--for a massive sewer spill that closed 29 miles of beaches in February.

“The fact is, this spill was totally avoidable,” said Dennis Dickerson, executive officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. “It did not have to happen. The city simply could have acted to upgrade the [sewer] line.”

Without assigning blame to individuals, Dickerson meted out the punishment for a spill that occurred when El Nino rains washed out a sewer main, sending 86 million gallons of untreated waste gushing down the Arroyo Conejo toward the Pacific.

Thousand Oaks, which also is facing a federal investigation, can pay the entire fine to a state water fund or dedicate $1.6 million of it to local projects, such as cleaning up the Calleguas Creek watershed.

Under state rules, the city could also opt to fight the fine at a hearing before the nine-member regional board, scheduled for June 15 in Simi Valley.

On Friday, City Atty. Mark Sellers said the city will indeed fight the penalty for the spill, which he has previously described as an “act of God” caused by record-shattering rains that also scuttled repair attempts for the 11 days after the Feb. 3 break.

“The city acted very responsibly, with great expense and effort, to repair this unexpected break as quickly as possible in order to minimize the amount of the escaping waste water,” Seller said.

“We were obviously hit by a natural disaster, and the amount of the fine is excessive, unprecedented and unjustified.”

Regional board officials believe the spill was avoidable because the line had broken twice previously and had long been scheduled for repair.

Environmentalists--who often criticize the board as lax in punishing the people who pollute the waterways of Los Angeles and Ventura counties--hailed the large fine Friday.

“It’s about time the regional board sent a strong message that major spills that threaten public health and imperil our water quality will not be tolerated in the Los Angeles region,” said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, an environmental group. “The $2.1 million definitely sends that message.”

The amount of the fine is substantially more than the regional board has ever collected in a single year, let alone for a single spill.

As a result of the spill, beaches in Los Angeles and Ventura counties were closed for up to 23 days because of health risks. Dozens of acres of cilantro, bok choy and kale had to be plowed under after potentially dangerous sewage washed from the arroyo over the crops. The effect of the spill on the sensitive Mugu Lagoon, home to several threatened and endangered species, and to ground water supplies is not yet known.

The amount of the fine was determined by tallying the economic losses from beach closures and by determining the benefits Thousand Oaks derived by not quickly replacing the line.

The reasons for the penalty, known as an administrative civil liability, were spelled out in a 14-page document sent to city officials late Friday.

Supporting their conclusion that the spill was avoidable, state regulators point to:

* Two previous spills, of 800,000 and 12 million gallons, in different parts of the same pipeline.

* The inherently risky topography of the craggy, narrow ravine surrounding the main.

* Numerous internal city memos, dating back a decade, stressing the need to upgrade the pipelines.

Even though Thousand Oaks leaders disagree with the sanction, fighting it could prove a risky proposition.

According to the California Water Code, the appointed regional board members can uphold the fine recommended by their staff--or reduce it.

The arbiters also have the option of increasing penalties, as the city of Los Angeles learned in January. That’s when board members upped a fine from $35,000 to $150,000 for two spills that released 150,000 gallons of waste in 1997.

The maximum possible penalty for a spill of Thousand Oaks’ magnitude is $860 million, by state law.

Regional board decisions can be appealed to the State Water Resources Control Board and then appealed in the courts.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined to say how, if at all, the state sanction would affect the federal investigation.