Tongva Allies With Homeowners to Fight Plains All American

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

On June 14, John Tommy Rosas, tribal administrator for the Tongva Ancestral Tribal Nation, filed a notice of public nuisance against Plains All American Pipeline.

The notice was related to the April 19 Santa Barbara oil spill. The Tongva Ancestral Tribal Nation’s traditional lands encompass the Los Angeles basin, from the offshore islands to as far inland as Redlands.

“Due to your negligence on May 19, 2015, you created a disaster,” states the letter that the Tongva Nation’s legal representative, Anthony Patchett, wrote.

It goes on to cite some well-known aspects of the disaster—the leaking of 101,000 gallons of crude oil, two state beaches closed, a fishing ban and the deaths of hundreds of birds—but it also notes that an oil slick “stretched down the shoreline of California, and entered the Tongva/TATTN tribal waters and tribal coastal areas including wetlands of the Tongva Ancestral Territorial Tribal Nation in Marina del Rey.”

The concern with Plains was not new, Rosas explained.

“I’ve been fighting with Plains and obstructing their permits, and continuations of their impact on our land for six or seven years now,” Rosas said. “They’ve been a constant problem.

“We have serious concerns about all this oil production offshore, the impacts, the fracking, it’s all been an issue forever… It impacts land, it changes the integrity of the land.”

And, that clashes with deeply held spiritual beliefs.

“So we have a duty to do what we can do, no matter who’s controlling the land,” he said. “We still fight for the earth and fight for the animals for the environment and for the future generations, no matter who they are.”

The Tongva tribe has a unique legal role to play, Rosas argued.

“We have international law rights that have to be honored and so the oil spill violates local state and federal law, but it also violates international law, that only we have the standing on,” he said.

Ocean protection is becoming increasingly important for a variety of reasons, and the Tongva, who have been here for 8,000 to 10,000 years, have the most long-standing interest in such protection locally.

The oil in Rancho’s pipeline actually belonged to ExxonMobil. When ExxonMobil applied for an emergency permit to move its oil by truck, while the pipeline was being repaired, the Tongva spoke up right away.

“I said we object to this,” Rosas said. “I’m not trying to take credit but they denied their permit.”

The letter also referenced Plains’ mismanagement at Rancho LPG. Patchett explained that the letter was a first step, which could be followed up with the filing of a lawsuit. Five days later, Patchett sent a letter representing Rosas, as well as San Pedro Peninsula Homeowner’s United, requesting a public hearing regarding Rancho’s operations from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. The request is specifically for an administrative nuisance abatement proceeding, as provided for by the municipal code. The letter requests a hearing “to determine if under Section 12.27.1 LAMC Rancho LPG:

1. Jeopardizes or adversely affects the public health, peace, or safety of persons residing or working on the premises or in the surrounding area, or;

2. Constitutes a public nuisance, or;

3. Has resulted in repeated nuisance activities.

This represents a new line of attack that’s never been tried before, so it remains to be seen what will come of it. But it’s not the only action being taken in the aftermath of the latest Plains disaster.

“We’re also submitting petitions to the EPA,” Patchett said, “But that’s not finalized yet.”

“Rancho, we just feel that’s an inappropriate place,” Rosas said. “We also have tribal and cultural resources there. I think they damaged one of our Indian village sites and we don’t know what’s going on there. They haven’t consulted as required by law, they haven’t let us do monitoring.”

This opens up yet another new legal front.

“We’re not just wanting them to correct what’s been done, and remediate, but we want those tanks out of there,” he said. “They’re just like big bombs waiting to go off. I just think it’s in an inappropriate place. I think it hasn’t been done right. The regulatory government agencies have let them retroactively keep that plant there. If they tried to do that now, they wouldn’t be allowed. So, I don’t think they should be able to do that.”