Mobile Home Park Owner Charged in Sewage Spills

Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the owner of a Malibu mobile home park for allowing a series of sewage overflows that officials say have soiled the pristine beach area.

The firm, Kissel Co. Inc., owner of Paradise Cove, faces more than $80,000 in fines after a series of septic tank overflows last year that authorities say violated state and local health regulations.

The 25-count complaint includes allegations that the company allowed raw sewage to run dangerously close to a children’s playground within the park.

“On some days, the effluent flows like a river right out of the sewer,” said Roger Goldingay, president of the Paradise Cove Homeowners Assn. “To call this place Paradise Cove is certainly something of a misnomer.”

The health violation charges come amid an ongoing controversy between management and Paradise Cove residents over possible rent increases--part of which could be used to upgrade or replace the 250-unit park’s aged septic tank system, officials say.

“Taken as an individual event, one spill isn’t a catastrophe,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Miller of the office’s Environmental Crimes/OSHA Division. “The issue for us is the chronic problem, one of almost predicable frequency that has been pointed out to the management of the trailer park for a long, long time.”

Garrett Hanken, an attorney representing owners of the oceanfront park, acknowledged that the overflows had taken place but said that it was residents, and not Kissel, who were responsible.

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“The company itself disposes of very little sewage--rather it’s the residents who control what goes into the system,” he said. “If there is a large sewage flow on a particular day, you have to ask, ‘Who is putting the stuff into the system?’ ”

Miller said resident usage was normal.

“Blaming the residents for this is like saying it’s the tenants’ fault for flushing their toilets. Our evidence shows nothing but normal use of the system,” he said.

The spills typically flowed down the hilly streets of the trailer park, exposing residents to raw sewage. Three spills reached storm drains or nearby Ramirez Creek and at least once resulted in the closing of the beach there, Miller said.

The case was referred by the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which first investigated several complaints made by park residents.

After state officials ordered park owners to take action to stem the spills, Kissel built several seepage pits in April, but the severe spills continued, Miller said.

The company is due in Malibu Municipal Court on Feb. 6 to answer the charges.

Hanken said residents have repeatedly voted down an owner initiative to raise rents to, among other things, repair or build a new system.

In the meantime, he said, some residents have continued to use washing machines and have deposited sanitary napkins and paper towels into the system in violation of management rules.

He suggested the overflows were created by residents to make management look bad amid the rent increase debates.

“I’ll let you draw your own conclusions,” Hanken said. “But apparently for some people, the best defense is an offense. Whenever we go hot and heavy on the rent increase issue, we seem to have problems with the septic system.”