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On Dec. 11 2025, I filed a sixty-day notice of an incoming Clean Water Act Citizen Suit, as required by Section 505(b) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b). This notice communicates my intent to file a citizen enforcement action for ongoing violations of Clean Water Act Sections 404, 401, and 1311 at the Saratoga Creek system and adjacent wetlands in Santa Clara, California. Between approximately 1950 and 1985, the parties identified in this notice discharged fill material into Saratoga Creek and adjacent jurisdictional wetlands without obtaining required permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They repeatedly buried Saratoga Creek (a superficial and 200ft below ground surface aquifer) by placing fill material in the creek channel and installing underground pipes, managing the Waters of the U.S. as if it were stormwater runoff. They filled approximately 500+ acres of tideland-adjacent wet meadow, destroyed rare and nationally important ecosystems, and intentionally installed a drop structure that functions as a complete barrier to fish passage in a stream that provides natural habitat for Chinook Salmon. They also razed prime farmland of international acclaim against the farmers' wishes, non-consensually annexed these pioneer farming families' land, disturbed soils known to contain Native American burial grounds and artifacts, presumably disposed of Native American remains via a garbage dump, clear-cut irreplaceable pear orchards, and filled the natural wetland and creek in order to cover it with concrete and build industrial parks—which they used to create no less than four Superfund toxic waste cleanup sites in just a couple of decades. None of these activities were authorized by Clean Water Act Section 404 permits, and no Section 401 state water quality certification was obtained. These violations continue to the present day. The fill material remains in place in waters of the United States. The buried creek continues flowing through underground infrastructure, or builds pressure underground where it lost the ability to surface and seep. Each day the unpermitted fill remains constitutes a continuing violation of the Clean Water Act. The attached notice provides detailed documentation of these violations. (There is also a text version of the notice). Additional exhibits and supporting documentation are available in an Appendix. The notice will be sent via certified mail will satisfy the sixty-day notice requirement under 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b). If the violations are not remediated within sixty days, I intend to file suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, civil penalties, and attorneys' fees. If the EPA or the Army Corps commences enforcement action within sixty days, a citizen suit may be precluded under 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b)(1)(B). I would strongly prefer that the EPA and Army Corps take action as I am not a civil engineer and this matter will require professional engineering oversight. I have a pending citizen suit already filed in the Northern District of California regarding hazardous waste and related violations at a specific facility in this location (Gjovik v. Apple Inc., Santa Clara, Jenab, et al., No. 5:25-cv-07360, N.D. Cal.). Only in researching that facility did I realize what was done in the overall area, and accordingly I filed this Notice and request enforcement action. - Ashley M. Gjovik  View the creek aerial photo album on Flickr here.
    
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AuthorUpdates from Ashley Gjovik about her whistleblower battle against Apple Inc. Archives
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