Lake Berryessa EIR Study is Dead on Arrival:  BOR Unauthorized  Redevelopment activities at pleasure cove kills the NEPA 2003 VSP DEIS

The CWP’s investigation findings reveal that the actions taken at Lake Berryessa CA, also violated federal and state mining acts at the Pleasure Cove Resort “Outback Area”.

Outback trailer park closed for sewage violations
Sunday, February 25, 2001
 
By NATHAN CRABBE
Register Staff Writer

LAKE BERRYESSA
The Berryessa "Outback" has come to resemble the stark Australian version in the weeks since its occupants were banned from staying there.

Pleasure Cove Resort is one of seven resorts at Lake Berryessa, located off State Route 128 on the southeastern side of a peninsula jutting into the lake. The remote area in the northern stretch of Pleasure Cove accessible only by a muddy, unpaved road is called the Outback by locals.

Cleve Dufer steps carefully while negotiating a rotting stairway barely clutching to an incline leading to a beach at the Outback's edge. A concession and resource specialist for Reclamation, Dufer points to a pipe poking out of a makeshift retaining wall.   The wall is made of made of junk found around the resort, everything including a kitchen sink. The wall is a problem, but the pipe is the concern of the moment.   The pipe allegedly spouts waste water directly into the lake below. Nothing is coming from the pipe at the moment, as these kind of violations have lead to the Outback's closure in December.

Not Quite Dry

Reclamation in October charged Pleasure Cove with breaking its contract with 34 health and safety violations. The Regional Water Quality Board also cited the resort for illegal waste discharge into surface water over the same problems.  Dufer said most of these violations occurred in the Outback.   Of the 116 trailers in the Outback, he said, 80 have problems including waste water pipes leading from trailers into the land and lake.

Peering beneath the trailers, Dufer looks for the tell-tale sign of improper sewage disposal. Pipes protrude from nearly every trailer into the ground below.   The pipes probably spurt waste into unlined pits created by trailer owners, he said.   Many resorts at the lake contain sewage hook-ups for mobile homes and some "dry" areas. Dry areas aren't connected to sewage systems and are set up much like campgrounds. Nearby outhouses are supposed to take care of the needs of occupants.   The area is therefore intended for short-term use. Intentions are sometimes different from reality at Berryessa.   Dufer said many trailers have been planted in the Outback for years. At least one trailer has been there since the resort opened 40 years ago, he said.

Forbidden Outback

Mobile home owners attempting to return to the Outback are confronted by a steel chain in their path.   Tenants are prevented from passing into the area without permission from the resort manager, and even then are only allowed to retrieve their belongings. They have until July to get everything out, Dufer said.   It appears little work has been done, from the look of toys, grills, golf carts and the huge array of other items still sitting around the trailers -- in addition to every one of the trailers themselves.

Tenants are planning legal action against the resort and are waiting until that's resolved before removing their possessions, said Jack Vranes, chairman of the Pleasure Cove Tenants Association.   Vranes said tenants are being used as pawns in Reclamation's scheme to force out resort managers.   "They're using (the sewage allegations) as propaganda to their own benefit," Vranes said. "They just want us out of there. They don't want to deal with us."

A firefighter in Redwood City, Vranes bought a trailer in the Outback area in 1985. He said the bureau is unfairly trying to portray the outback as a refuge of trailer trash.   "There's attorneys back there, there's professional people ... scientists back there," he said.   "They wouldn't have done this on purpose. They wouldn't pollute."

Many trailers had existing pipes, decks and other additions when tenants bought them that Reclamation now alleges are violations, he said. Vranes blames the resort manager for not informing tenants of problems before it reached this point.   A planned lawsuit by tenants is intended to keep the Outback open, he said. If not, Vranes said, they hope to receive monetary compensation for being forced out.

Rolling Deadlines

Oscar Braun heads Save Our Bay, a San Mateo-based environmental group. He and his wife last year bought a trailer in Pleasure Cove, Braun said, just to find out soon after about the bevy of environmental issues at the resort.   His mobile home isn't in the Outback, thus doesn't face closure.   Braun said he's skeptical about Reclamation following though on shutting down the Outback.   "They've never done it before," he said.

Dufer concedes the Bureau has a spotty legacy of following through on threats. It initially moved to close the Outback in 1985, then backed off and gave the resort an 8-year deadline to clean things up.   When 1993 came around and the resort still wasn't in compliance, the deadline was pushed back again -- this time to 1995. Trailers weren't inspected for changes required by that deadline until last year. 

Outback owners Richard and Judy Delooze have pledged this time is different. They've hired a new manager, Steve Petty, who said he's focused on correcting the resort's problems.   Dufer said the clean-up is scheduled to be completed before year's end. Reclamation will try to get tenants to pay to clean up their owns sites, he said, but acknowledges the Bureau will likely foot the bill and later hope to be repaid compensation through lawsuits.

Braun estimates the intensive effort will cost up to $2 million. Contaminants in the soil must be removed and trucked out, he said.   Illegally constructed walls, stairs and other trailer improvements must be removed but replaced with something else to prevent causing erosion and worse problems, he said.   "You cannot remove something and leave gaping ditches and holes," he said.   Braun said he hopes his group will serve as a watchdog to ensure the status quo doesn't continue at Pleasure Cove.   In the past, he said, "as soon as the noise level dies down, things quietly go on."

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 256-2260 or ncrabbe@napanews.com.

The overview above from the Napa News archives gives a perspective of the troubled area and the conflicts that existed. Bureau of Reclamation officials allowed a Concessionaire to accomplish remediation of the Outback Area that had numerous structures, trailers that were literally abandoned on-site and attachments. This work was done under the direction of a Mr. Steve Petty, hired by the Concessionaire at the time a Mr. Richard and Judy DeLooze.  

The Bureau of Reclamation ordered the Concessionaire to abate and cleanup the Pleasure Cove Resort “Outback Area”. The action took place in violation of numerous regulatory agencies protocols being violated. An EIR or Special Assessment was not completed. The area was not pre-surveyed for potential “hot-spots” and environmental damage. Over a period of 22 months the work was conducted to “clean up” and abate left behind waste, and garbage associated with the encampment area. Several large pieces of heavy equipment were brought on site.

This matter needs full investigation as to following procedures and compliance with the State Mining Act and the Federal Mining Act. Large amounts of top soil were moved and relocated. The waste “cradle-to-grave trail” from the Outback site must be investigated. Mr. Petty was not a licensed contractor and had a person assist him in the restoration a Mr. Steve Nelson of the area to natural.

Over 250,000 cubic yards or more of waste were present. It is felt that all of the waste, some contaminated with garbage and waste items abandoned on the site did not leave the Federal Estate. It is felt that mush of that waste was relocated into nearby canyons on the federal reservation and buried on site. The two individuals Petty and Nelson bore the cost of this effort.

1. The federal investigators should review the waste trail to what disposal site and what was the cost of the disposal did the materials and the removal documents of waste and trailers pulled from the site. Many trailers and lean-to shacks were so decrepit that they were clamshell and destroyed on sited. 

2. Whether the Clean water act was violated by the debris that removed from the shoreline trailers and rip rap removals and improvised shoreline docks, stairs and retauing walls.

3. Did the BOR after the restoration was completed clear and have a special Assessment and Environmental review clearance of the area completed.

4. What was the involvement of the EPA and Corps of Engineers and the BLM in regards to the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act 1975 and the top soils transitions and movements.

5. What was BOR’s authority to rearrange Federal lands and water shoreline without adequate assessments and Operation Plan to accomplish this critical work.

6. Did the BOR of Reclamation at any time during this period convey a promise to Mr. Petty that for his efforts to clear the “Outback Area” that he would sometime in the future be a chosen favorable bidder for Pleasure Cove?.

7. This illegal restoration action took place during 2002 and 2003. Mr.  DeLooze the Concessionaire of Record died on Dec 16, 2003. During the ensuing period Mr. Petty managed the facility until the BOR decided to close the Pleasure Cove Resort on April 18, 2004. Later on May 20, 2004 Mr. Petty and Associates were awarded a 15 month contract to operate Pleasure Cove.