Developers of a luxury mountain resort near Lake Tahoe have agreed to a proposed $2.75 million settlement for allegedly polluting a stream feeding the wild trophy trout waters of Martis Creek Reservoir.
If approved by environmental authorities, the payment would be the largest ever rendered in the enforcement of construction runoff in California, said Scott Ferguson, enforcement chief with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The state began issuing storm water runoff permits for construction sites in 1992 to curb runoff of sediment into waterways during excavation. "The construction industry should know by now what is expected of them," Ferguson said. The proposed deal would set aside 120 alleged water-quality violations the Lahontan agency filed against Northstar Mountain Properties Inc. in 2006 and 2007 as the company carved a road and foundations for vacation homes at Northstar-at-Tahoe ski resort. In exchange, the developer would invest $2.15 million in restoring wetlands, thinning timber stands and improving wildlife habitat on the historic 1,462-acre Waddle Ranch, just north of the ski resort on Highway 267. The remaining $600,000 would go to state water quality enforcement programs.
The proposed payment is unusually high because of the large number of alleged violations against the developer despite multiple warnings, a 2006 cease-and-desist order and state training given to the project's construction manager about minimizing erosion, Ferguson said. "We expected them to apply what they had learned, but it didn't happen," Ferguson said.
Blake Riva, managing partner for East West Partners Tahoe, said most of the alleged violations related to construction of a road that winds four miles as it rises 1,500 feet up the ski slopes alongside Martis Creek. "We tried to complete too much construction too fast in our short summer construction season in the mountains," Riva said in a phone interview Thursday. "We didn't have adequate systems in place to meet all the Lahontan regulations."
East West Partners oversees the project developer, Northstar Mountain Properties.
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