The city of St. Helena has received a slap on the wrist and could face heavy fines from a regulatory agency for dumping dirt, rocks and asphalt in the Napa River floodplain without the proper permits.

During the last few weeks the city has dumped truckloads of material in Wappo Park south of the Pope Street Bridge, intending to use it to build a new approach on the west side of the bridge.

But the city failed to obtain regulatory permission to place potentially hazardous material in the floodplain, said Fred Hetzel of the State Water Resources Control Board.

The stockpiles are the result of various paving projects and underground utilities work going on around town, as well as a bank restoration project near Meadowcreek Circle.

According to  St. Helena Public Works Director Jonathon Goldman, the material will be gone by Oct. 15, the date that regulatory agencies consider the official start of the rainy season.

Hetzel said that although there’s no immediate threat to water quality, the city will have to file a Notice of Intent to get the project covered under a statewide general permit.

St. Helena city officials also have to form a plan to prevent polluted stormwater from finding its way into the river, he said.

Hetzel said the Board will issue a Notice of Violation to the city, which doesn’t necessarily involve any fines. If the agency chooses to take enforcement action, the city could face up to $10,000 in fines for each day the material was in the floodplain without the proper permits.

Since the work wasn’t covered by the statewide general permit, the city could also be vulnerable to third-party lawsuits, Hetzel added.

Goldman not worried

Goldman said he’s not sure how long the stockpiles have been at Wappo Park, but his guess is that the Board won’t levy any fines if the city completes the necessary paperwork.

Work on the new Pope Street bridge embankment could begin as early as this week. Goldman said any excess material that isn’t used on the project will be hauled away, either to Clover Flat Landfill or the county’s transloading facility on Silverado Trail. He said there’s no room at the city’s corporation yard to store the material.

The environmental review of the bridge realignment project did not evaluate the impact of placing any material in Wappo Park. Goldman said he didn’t believe the impact would be significant because the stockpiles are only temporary.

Goldman said he’s received numerous calls from locals concerned about why the material is there and what impact it could have on the river.

LRC involved

The stockpiles also attracted the attention of environmentalist Chris Malan, a key player in the city’s old nemesis, the Living Rivers Council. Last week Malan wrote a letter to Hetzel questioning whether the dumping ran afoul of regulations and pointing out that asphalt and large boulders are harmful to the health of the river

That prompted Hetzel to pay an unannounced visit to the site on Tuesday. He said the agency will continue to monitor what happens at the site to ensure that the city follows the appropriate regulations from now on and removes any excess material by Oct. 15.

If the material is still there after that date, the city will have to implement erosion and sediment control measures, Hetzel said.

Repeat offense?

Goldman said some of the people who’d called to complain about the stockpiles were worried that the situation was a repeat of the last time the city got in trouble for placing material in the floodplain without property permits.

At that time cave spoils were trucked in to the wastewater treatment plant’s reclamation fields and used to create an elevated levee/road.

Goldman said the road was built to give city workers better access to the area, but Jim Bachor, who lives across the river from the treatment plant, said the road acted as a barrier to water during the 2006 New Year’s flood and caused his property and home to flood.

According to St. Helena City Manager Bert Johansson, the Wappo Park situation differs from the previous incident because this time the material is in the floodplain only temporarily. And this time the city conducted a hydraulic analysis on how the new bridge embankment would impact the river, he said — even though that analysis didn’t take into account the stockpiles in Wappo Park.

He added it would be premature to speculate on whether the Board will levy any fines.

As the city’s floodplain administrator, Goldman accepted responsibility for the snafu.

Mayor not worried

St. Helena Mayor Del Britton, who joined the rest of the council in taking the blame for the treatment plant debacle, downplayed the latest incident, calling it “a non-issue at this point.” He said temporarily stockpiling the material in Wappo Park was “the logical thing to do” in preparation for the Pope Street bridge project.

Britton said there’s some dispute over whether the city’s actions really constitute what regulations define as a “disturbance” requiring a Notice of Intent. But the city is filing one rather than arguing the point, he said.

“Our interpretation is that we’re not disturbing anything,” he said. “We’re just using it as a temporary storage site pending construction, which is going to happen in the very near future.”

Britton agreed with Goldman that it’s unlikely the Board will fine the city.

St. Helena Councilmember Eric Sklar said the city will accept the responsibility of correcting anything that was done improperly.

St. Helena Councilmember Bonnie Schoch said she needed to have more information about the situation before commenting.