Dolan verbally recoils at the thought: “God, I hope it wasn’t on purpose – that would be too diabolical. But it wouldn’t surprise me that the reason the goats were out there was not for legitimate reasons. Maybe for a tax scheme. Johnson isn’t a livestock owner, he’s a developer.”
Dolan says he has never seen anything like this and hopes he never will again.
“This is the first time we’ve had problems with such carelessness,” he says. “The goats were put there in such a careless fashion, and when they escaped there was a reckless response. If it occurred again, I’d be more tenacious in demanding a more expedient response.”
Dolan had already been deposed and was ready to testify had the state’s lawsuits gone to trial. He says he’ll always remember this as “a real mess.”
Also ready to take the stand – in fact, the first witnesses the attorney general’s office intended to call – was Bruce Babbitt, the former governor of Arizona and a former secretary of the interior. He counts getting the National Monument status for Ironwood as one of his proudest achievements.
Meanwhile, Johnson was denied his rezoning request on La Osa Ranch and has since sold the land.
The civil suit didn’t seek a specific amount of damages but asked the court to impose fines as required by law – sometimes seeking triple damages and punitive damages. For the water-quality issues alone, the state was asking for $25,000 per day for violations that spanned a couple of years.
The suit had gotten strong editorial support from The Republic. “We hope the state prevails and that the final tab is hefty,” it said in a February 20, 2005 editorial. “Not just to penalize Johnson and his associates, although the actions described in the lawsuit richly deserve punishment. But in a state where growth is king, this legal action sends an important message that developers can’t flout the rules without consequence.
“They can’t write off environmental damage as a cost of doing business. And they can’t violate our heritage.”
Now, in an entirely separate situation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants tens of millions of dollars from Johnson.
In November 2005, it filed a massive suit charging that Johnson and two of his companies violated the federal Clean Water Act by filling more than 100 acres of the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries with dirt and debris during 2003 and 2004.
The EPA says he stripped stretches of the riverfront, including one of the river’s last mesquite bosquets in one of the Sonoran Desert’s wettest riparian forests.
It was devastating destruction, the agency says, so it sued to force Johnson not only to “restore” the area – a job that would cost millions – but also fined him up to $32,500 for every day the law was broken and the damage lasted.
If the courts find a single violation that lasted a year, the fine would top $10 million. But the EPA is not charging there was just one violation. Its officials tallied violations for each time a bulldozer dumped dirt in the river. They say the damage could have spanned nearly two years.
Johnson has called the suit “baseless” and denies the claims, saying whatever grading was done was in an isolated wash, not in the river or a tributary. He also contends the wash fails to meet federal standards as a navigable stream that would bring it under the reaches of the Clean Water Act.
A prepared statement in response to the suit reads: “It is preposterous to say that a small wash in the middle of the Sonoran Desert is a navigable water.”
Kao, the EPA attorney in San Francisco, says the suit is in the discovery stage and no court date has been set as of press time. It could be years before the case ever gets to court.
These days, the land called La Osa Ranch lies silent, looking like a swath of dirt from outer space. Native grasses and plants are attempting to grow back along the Santa Cruz River, as desert plants have done for centuries in a climate where weaker varieties wouldn’t even try.
Will the record $12.05 million settlement against Johnson alert other developers that the State of Arizona is serious about reining in outrageous behavior and protecting its land?
Terry Goddard would tell you he certainly hopes so.