FISHBACK MOUNTAIN
“It has been determined now by engineers that over 81,000 cubic yards of unknown/uninspected refuse was imported across Los Angeles city and Los Angeles county roads into and over a state park on state-park-owned, -controlled, and -maintained roads to an unpermitted dump owned by a private citizen,” says Doherty who estimates that approximately 10,000 dump trucks discharged rubble on Fishback’s land, and for good reason – it was cheap.
According to Fishback property gatekeeper, Wayne “Kenny” Ochoa, truckers pay him $25 a load to dump their debris, which could explain their deciding to make the precipitous grade up to Fishback’s property fully loaded. “The cost of disposing a load of construction debris at a Ventura County dumpsite is approximately $400,” according to court papers filed by Fishback last July.
“The truckers pay me $25 per load for spreading out the material they deliver,” Ochoa said in an October 23, 2006 court declaration. “I do not get paid by Wayne Fishback, and I do not pay Fishback anything for the opportunity to stay at the Ranch.”
Mionske finds this fishy, because he says that the truckers sign receipts they drop in a box at the property entrance with each load brought in and that he has repeatedly seen Fishback taking them out and counting them. If Fishback wasn’t getting any of this money, Mionske asks, then why did Fishback buy a tractor from him for $18,000 in 2004 for Kenny to use for the debris spreading? “I warned Kenny because I like the guy,” says Mionske. “‘Fishback is using you like fodder. The IRS is going to come after you.’”
Last May, the Ventura County Environmental Health Division (EHD) came after Fishback with a cease-and-desist order barring any more solid waste being deposited on parts of the property. The order was upheld September 22. “Mr. Fishback in essence has brought in thousands of cubic yards of solid waste, dumped this waste in canyons and ravines on his properties, covered this waste with soil in addition to moving thousands of cubic yards of soil on these properties,” wrote William C. Stratton, EHD’s manager of the Technical Services Section, on September 26. “Mr. Fishback is operating an illegal solid waste disposal site, a ‘dump.’”
The Fishbacks have appealed that decision and point out that the Ventura County Resource Conservation District approved a Hillside Erosion Control Ordinance Plan in June for new dumping areas on the property using clean fill or dirt. “The problem has always been this lack of proper oversight and which agency is in charge of what,” says Doherty. “Why is one agency implementing a cease-and-desist order while another is issuing a ‘plan’?”
On October 19, the Fishbacks sued the County of Ventura claiming that the EHD’s determination that he is operating a solid waste dump without a permit is without merit and is costing him to the tune of two million dollars. “The questions in this case center around what is ‘waste’ and what is not waste,” the lawsuit reads. “Oddly, it can be best expressed in the axiom, ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ … .”
