State Orders Animal Haven to Clean Creek

Declaring that a serious pollution problem exists, state water quality officials ordered the Wildlife Waystation in Little Tujunga Canyon to clean up a fouled creek and warned Monday of possible $10,000-a-day fines.

Dennis Dickerson, executive director of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the fines could be retroactive to March 30, the day state workers reportedly videotaped employees of the animal sanctuary washing animal waste into a creek.

Such a ruling could send the fine total past $400,000. Dickerson said a decision on the fines might be reached this week.

The agency’s cleanup order contradicts the refuge’s own environmental study, which concluded that there is no harmful water pollution at the 120-acre compound in the Angeles National Forest.

Martine Colette, director of Wildlife Waystation, expressed confidence that the agency’s demands, which include a schedule of deadlines, could be satisfied and the fines averted.

“I think, if I read this correctly, and we can provide good reasons, they would allow us extensions. The indication is [that] with appropriate purposes, they are more than happy to entertain giving us more time,” Colette said.

Officials of the Regional Water Quality Control Board said inspectors found employees washing animal feces and urine into a stream bed on April 5 and April 26.

“It was a visually obvious discharge with discoloration of the water and floating material,” Dickerson said. “There is no need for a lab test in that case.”

The agency’s order outlines 10 violations, directly contradicting statements made by Waystation officials since April 7, when the state Department of Fish and Game ordered the compound closed to the public and to new animals.

The charges include dumping raw sewage onto the ground from toilets in a trailer encampment where about 70 employees live. That violation and most of the others were noted in citations issued by the Los Angeles County Health Department in 1993. Such allegations were repeated by Fish and Game in several subsequent reports.

Collette and Waystation board members have denied the allegations of wrongdoing, and said they are cooperating with Fish and Game, the Los Angeles County district attorney and the state attorney general. Colette has characterized the multi-agency effort targeting alleged pollution at the facility as a “witch hunt.”

Fish and Game officials said the water board’s report bolsters their findings.

“We’re pleased the report is consistent with what we’ve stated in the past,” said spokesman Steve Martarano. “At some point, they must change their methods of cleaning the cages and getting rid of waste. We hope this gets them going in the right direction.”

The first official response required from the Waystation is a report of water discharge due May 31. Other reports are due in June and October.

Dickerson said the water quality board’s order does not protect the Waystation from penalties by other agencies.

The Waystation’s nonprofit status may help buffer the organization from the harshest punishment, Dickerson said. The state’s water quality code requires the board to take into consideration such factors as the violator’s ability to pay and the severity of the violations.