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Mr. Timothy Kong <br /> April 17, 2007 <br /> Page 2 of 4 <br /> contamination at the property. She has not even.seen the property since 1999, when she <br /> sold it to Temple of Deliverance Church of Christ in God. She is not "maintaining a <br /> nuisance" on the property, and she did not breach any contract with San Joaquin County <br /> to clean up the property. She does not own the property,-and will receive no benefit if <br /> and when the Regional Board decides sufficient investigation and clean up of the <br /> groundwater has occurred. <br /> Our client, Ms. Greene, simply is not a"responsible party" according to the law. <br /> Section 13304(a) of the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act (i.e., the Water Code) <br /> is the authority for the action of the Regional Board in naming you as a"responsible <br /> party." Section 13304(a) defines"responsibleparty" as: <br /> "Any person who ... has caused or permitted, causes or permits, or threatens to <br /> cause or permit any waste to be discharged or deposited where it is, or probably <br /> will be, discharged into the waters of the state and creates, or threatens to <br /> create, a condition of pollution or nuisance." <br /> The contamination occurred before our client, Ms. Greene, inherited the property <br /> in 1989. She did not cause or permit the contamination to occur or to continue. The <br /> tenant of the owner before Ms. Greene was Interstate Brands Corporation. This former <br /> tenant(Interstate Brands) found the contamination when it removed an underground fuel <br /> tank in 1988. Interstate Brands undertook the investigation and clean up from about 1994 <br /> until 2004, when it filed for bankruptcy. Our client, Ms. Greene, relied on Interstate <br /> Brands to control the contamination from its old underground storage tank—and it did so <br /> during the time that our client owned the property. <br /> In 1999, five years before Interstate filed for bankruptcy, and while Interstate was <br /> continuing its investigation and cleanup, our client sold the property to Temple of <br /> Deliverance Church of Christ in God("Temple"). <br /> And, you bought the property from Temple in 2003. In the course of deciding to <br /> buy the property, you and your realtor must have inspected the property and done some <br /> "due diligence." It appears that a monitoring well was present on the property; records <br /> were electronically available from the State; and the County had a very large file about <br /> this property. <br /> When Interstate Brands filed for bankruptcy, it became your responsibility as the <br /> property owner to control the contamination. As the State Water Resources Control <br /> Board has explained, where someone such as yourself has knowledge of the <br /> contamination and the ownershipof the ro ert: necessary to control the contamination, <br /> P 1 yy <br /> "it is reasonable to conclude that such landowner is a discharger" according to Section <br />