Drakes Bay Oyster Company Sued by California River Watch for Violations of Clean Water Act

Drakes Bay Oyster Company's refusal to cease operations in the wilderness area which Drakes Estero is part of has resulted in another lawsuit being added to those it has already caused. Added to their legally flawed request for consideration of an appeal before the Supreme Court, and their logically fractured suit against the California Coastal Commission, DBOC now finds itself being sued by the California River Watch for their ongoing violations of the Clean Water Act (see below for press release).

 

Structures of pressure treated wood

should not be allowed in a wilderness area.

 

 

Despite a well polished public relations campaign to support one family's continued commercial operation in a wilderness area, the fact is the Lunny family purchased an operation with a lease they knew would end in 2012 and which, under the Wilderness Act, they clearly knew would not be renewed. Pressure treated wood structures, plastic grow-out bags and the use of motor boats are not compatible with the Philip Burton Wilderness Act, created in 1976 by Congress under the Wilderness Act. No matter how hard you wave your arms the legal arguments to support the commercial operation will not fly.

 

Peter Prows, PR Attorney for DBOC

"The plan is for the ranchers to be next."

Pacific Legal Foundation Video

 

Attempts to claim this is the first step in part of a "grand plan" to eliminate ranching on Point Reyes, then Marin County, followed by Sonoma County only show how desperate the DBOC legal team is to gain traction. Peter Prows, public relations attorney for DBOC, continues to repeat the unfounded belief that this is part of some "plan" to remove cattle ranching from Point Reyes. Unlike the industrial shellfish operation in the marine wilderness, Congress specifically wrote into law cattle ranching as an exemption. Attempts to re-write the law are made with an pen lacking ink.

 

It is time for Drakes Bay Oyster Company to cease operating and allow for completion of the only marine wilderness area on the west coast.

 

Press release:

 

Drakes Bay Oyster Co. Sued by California River Watch for Violations of Clean Water Act

California River Watch, a Sebastopol-based organization devoted to protecting Northern California's water quality, filed a lawsuit against the Drakes Bay Oyster Company on February 7^th, saying the commercial shellfish business operating in the Point Reyes National Seashore is polluting the national park waters and ocean with waste water, plastic, and invasive species and has failed to obtain the required pollution discharge permits for over seven years.  "Drakes Bay Oyster Company, which has been repeatedly cited by state agencies for its pollution, failure to obtain permits, and violations of environmental protection laws, is at it again," said Larry Hanson of California River Watch. "The Drakes Bay Oyster Company’s lack of respect for the federal Clean Water Act fouls our national park waters and degrades one of the most ecologically important wilderness areas established in the United States."  Read the River Watch lawsuit.