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Dogging Junkyards

An effort to get a Hayward auto wrecking yard cleaned up has grown into a campaign to bring dozens of Bay Area and Delta industrial polluters into compliance with storm water regulations.

In 1995, BayKeeper, alerted by citizen complaints, threatened to sue the Pick Your Part junkyard if the owners didn't correct numerous violations. At the time, BayKeeper characterized Pick Your Part as a "typical" auto wrecker - it had hundreds of dead cars dripping oil and other fluids onto the bare earth, there was little in the way of storm water runoff control, and junked vehicles, oil drums and other detritus were sinking into a nearby wetlands. Rather than go to court, the junkyard's owners agreed to clean things up; promised steps included constructing a berm around the site and paving the yard to reduce groundwater pollution.

BayKeeper found that Pick Your Part was "typical" in another way, too. Many owners of industrial sites hadn't bothered to file storm water pollution prevention plans with the state, even though they had been required to since 1992. The group began sending out notices to the violators, threatening to bring them to court if they didn't comply with the law. In most cases, the two sides were able to reach an agreement without a judge, but says BayKeeper attorney Leo O'Brien, "If they want to fight, we fight."

The campaign has shifted away from the Bay Area and into the Delta, O'Brien says, and now includes other types of industrial sites, including a steel manufacturer, a door factory and a scrap metal recycler. BayKeeper estimates that there are hundreds, if not thousands of violators in the Delta region. Someone could go to an industrial area "spin around ten times, throw a rock," and easily hit a scofflaw, O'Brien says. A half dozen letters have just been sent out to Stockton area companies, along with about ten more to businesses in Lodi.

Things haven't been totally resolved with Pick Your Part, either. According to BayKeeper, the yard is still unpaved, and stormwater retention and cleanup efforts have been inadequate. In February, the US EPA issued an administrative order, telling the company to clean up its act or face possible fines of $27,500 a day. According to EPA's Dan Meer, the agency is closely tracking Pick Your Parts compliance - so far the company has been "pretty responsive," he says.

Contact: BayKeeper (415) 561-2299

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