By Kathryn Reed
Owners of the Tahoe Keys Marina and the general manager received certified letters this week from the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board putting them on notice that ongoing violations must end.
“The purpose of requiring the technical report from them is to get information from them relating to when the violations will be corrected and get information on why certain issues took a little longer than what may be considered normal to correct,” Eric Taxer with Lahontan told Lake Tahoe News.
The offenders have until Sept. 2 to respond to Lahontan in writing.
Letters were sent to Donna and Robert Krilich, Robert Krilich Jr., Jean Merkelbach and Robert Spinnato. The latter is the general manager whom Lahontan has been dealing with. None of them was available for comment.
Some of the issues relate to the July 22 inspection by Lahontan. But state inspectors were back out at the site July 28 only to find things had not been fixed or more issues had come up.
“Typically what we see is dischargers will fix things as expeditiously and practically as they can in a timely manner,” Taxer said.
The Tahoe Keys is not typical.
One thing Taxer observed was spilled anti-freeze on rocks that had not been cleaned up in the last 11 days. When he pointed this out to Spinnato, Spinnato ordered an employee to deal with it immediately.
Mulch has been placed by the CTC on the dirt, while the marina has added rock next to the parking lot driveway. Photo/LTN
One of the new issues for Lahontan is the illegal grading of vegetation, which is compounded by being so close to Lake Tahoe.
Representatives of the California Tahoe Conservancy were at the marina when Taxer and another Lahontan employee arrived July 28. CTC owns the land. They have placed mulch on the 11,000-square-feet and fiber rolled wattles to act as berms to prevent runoff from reaching the lake. They will be billing the marina for this expense.
The creation of the illegal, unpermitted, unauthorized dirt parking lot on state property is part of Lahontan’s latest report on the marina. This agency will be monitoring what goes on at the site.
CTC spokeswoman Victoria Ortiz told Lake Tahoe News, “We’re still in talks about exactly how it will proceed, but we did receive a letter from TKM indicating their intention to rectify the situation as soon as possible. The fence will be replaced and the property that was graded will be revegetated at their expense in conformance with Conservancy and TRPA requirements.”
Julie Regan, spokeswoman with Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, told LTN, “We are still working through our process internally but should have an indication as to whether to pursue a monetary violation within a week. The first priority was to get an approved site restoration plan, which we now have.”
A California Highway Patrol officer was out inspecting the site and taking pictures this week, since it is state property. No one from the local CHP office returned calls.
South Lake Tahoe police officers have submitted a report to the El Dorado County District Attorneys Office for possible prosecution in regards to violating the city’s grading ordinance.
It would be up to the Lahontan board of directors if fines were to be levied against the marina’s owners. They could face a penalty of $10,000 per day for violating Lahontan’s permit. The sewage pump would fall under that category.
The marina on Aug. 5 said the sewage pump is operational. It was not operating July 28 during Lahontan’s last inspection.
The law is every marina on the California side must provide a working pump every day for vessels to extract their sewage.
Officials with the South Lake Tahoe marina also face a potential civil liability of $1,000 per day for failing to provide the technical report that is due in early September.
