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ORRICK HERRINGTON&SUTCLIFFE LLP THE OR�ICK BUILDING 405 HOWARD STREET 0 SAN FRANCISCO,CALIFORNIA 94105-2669 0 R R I C K tel 1-415-773-5700 JUN 0 8 2009 fax +1-415-773-5759 WWW.ORRICK.COM ENVIRONMENT HEALTH PERNMIT/SERVICES June 5, 2009 Joshua D.Watts (415)773-5909 jwatts@orrick.com EMAIL AND U.S.MAIL Jared S. Mueller Porter Scott A Professional Corporation 350 University Ave., Suite 200 Sacramento, CA 95825 Re: Potential Destruction of Evidence by Olivera Egg Ranch,LLC Dear Mr. Mueller: It came to our attention yesterday that your client, Olivera Egg Ranch,LLC ("Olivera"), has been cleaning the manure lagoons residing on its egg production facility located at 944 and 952 W. Bowman Road, French Camp, California 95231 for the past week and is still engaged in the clean up as of today. As part of this effort, Olivera is physically removing the manure from the lagoons by using a large backhoe and using trucks to transport the manure offsite. We understand that Olivera is using four to nine men working 12 hours a day and employing three large dump trucks to constantly dig and dump a mixture of solids and liquids. Moreover,Plaintiffs observed numerous brand new PVC piping on the property, about 12 inches in diameter,which appear like they may be used to add in a new drainage system or replace an old waste removal system. Olivera's recent actions are tantamount to destruction of evidence of which it had and continues to have a duty to preserve. Plaintiffs are unaware of such a clean up effort by Olivera in recent time or that such a practice is a regularly conducted activity. Several 'individual plaintiffs have lived at their current addresses,which lie in close proximity to Olivera's property and the lagoons in question, continuously and for years before Olivera came in during the mid-1990s. Moreover, Olivera's Manure Management Plan does not describe the removal of manure from the lagoons. See attached Exhibit A. In fact,Mr. Olivera, in a response to the San Joaquin County Environmental Health Department, stated that the facility did not need to remove solids from the lagoons because the solids were dispersed by recirculating pumps and mechanically dragging a boom across the ponds. See attached Exhibit A. While Plaintiffs support Olivera's efforts to regularly clean its property, this recent undertaking is suspicious in light of our recent request to enter the property pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 to collect evidence and perform scientific testing on various parts of the property, including the soil, air and manure lagoons. On May 22, 2009, exactly two weeks ago, Plaintiffs sent Olivera a request to enter this specific property "for the purposes of'inspecting,measuring, surveying,photographing,videotaping, testing OHS West:260672401.3