A 16-year effort to hold a McKinleyville-area property owner
accountable for polluting Little River hit a major turning
point today [Aug. 6] after the North Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board unanimously voted to refer the case to
the state Attorney General’s Office for review. Now the case
will play out in the courts. Since December 2010, state
agencies and environmental advocacy groups have sounded the
alarm over allegations of unpermitted solid waste disposal and
unauthorized grading at the 226-acre property, which is just
upstream from Moonstone Beach. Water board staff assert that
“poorly managed livestock grazing” and abandoned cow and horse
carcasses have contaminated Little River with bacteria,
specifically E. coli and fecal coliform, putting beachgoers and
threatened salmonid species at risk.
On this first-ever Foundation water tourwe examined water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.
Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
