FBI Briefed on Dumping Allegations

Federal investigators have joined a growing inquiry into allegations against a longtime county contractor who had been cited for numerous environmental violations, The Times has learned.

The FBI and officials from several local law enforcement agencies were briefed Wednesday on the case of Tom A. Staben, sources said.

County officials say Staben may have violated the Clean Water Act by allegedly dumping huge amounts of dirt, rubble and junk along the Arroyo Simi flood plain, threatening to clog waterways and damaging the environment downstream.

But Gary Auer, supervisor of the local FBI office, refused to confirm that a federal investigation has been ordered.

“The FBI will neither confirm nor deny a pending investigation with respect to the Staben incident,” Auer said.

Wednesday’s meeting came just a week after county code enforcement officials, armed with a warrant, cited Staben for using his Somis farm as a storage yard for his contracting business.

Staben is working under a $994,000 federally funded county public works project to repair storm damage along Santa Ana Road near Foster Park. Over the last five years, he has been awarded about $2.3 million in county contracts to clear streams and roads of storm debris, records show.

Code enforcement officials say Staben’s land is riddled with broken-down construction equipment, farm equipment, trucks, cars, cement, tires and engines buried in the muck and brush of the Arroyo Simi flood plain.

Staben could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

In a letter sent to Staben last week, Fred Boroumand, manager of the permit and regulatory section of the Ventura County Flood Control Department, ordered Staben to hire a licensed surveyor to draft a topographical map of his property along the Arroyo Simi flood plain, a waterway that ultimately flows down Calleguas Creek and into the environmentally sensitive Mugu Lagoon.

If the map suggests a change from previous surveys of the area, Staben will be forced to restore the flood plain to its natural state, the letter states.

“The above violation has been documented by pictures and recorded video,” Boroumand wrote. “These on-site inspections show that you are still in violation of Ventura County Flood Plain Management Ordinance and our notice of violation dated May 12, 1998 is still in force.”

County officials reported seeing crews cleaning up Staben’s farm on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, county environmentalists say they are mounting a letter-writing campaign to the Board of Supervisors, imploring the panel to do everything within the law to discontinue awarding taxpayer dollars to known environmental violators.

Local, state and federal officials acknowledged, and court and county records show, that Staben has a long history of violating county codes and environmental laws.

And despite being cited at least three times in the last five years for similar dumping violations on his Somis land, Staben continued to win county contracts.

“We’re concerned the county is not being consistent,” said Kim Uhlich, analyst with the Environmental Defense Center in Ventura. “On the one hand, they’re supposedly protecting the environment by going after the violators, and on the other hand they’re issuing him contracts. We’re concerned about their good faith about protecting the environment.”