Humboldt Hill Property Owner Cited for Dumping Soil Above Wiyot Wetlands

Satellite imagery and neighbor complaints converged on Mike Duncan's Humboldt Hill property, where county officials cited the Schmidbauer Building Supply general manager and former Eureka City Schools board member for unpermitted grading in a stream-side management area above a creek draining toward Wiyot-owned tidal wetlands.

Neighbors and community watchers had reported watching "semi-truck after semi-truck" deliver loose soil onto the steep hillside, which drains toward a creek and protected tidal wetlands owned by Wiyot-area tribes. Google Earth imagery captured the scale of the operation: a massive volume of dirt graded into a wedge-shaped plateau just north of a three-story home on the property, with a semi-truck caught by satellite rounding Blue Tree Court carrying yet another fresh load.

According to the imagery, the large-scale deposition was already visible by last May, a few months before neighbors began filing official complaints with the county.

The first county employee to investigate those complaints was Humboldt County Building Inspector Ross Eskra, who reported to officials identified only as Ingersoll and Quenell on September 29 and found nothing amiss. The county nonetheless ultimately cited Duncan for unpermitted grading in a stream-side management area at the property.

Duncan's own words, written months before the citation, suggest he was aware the situation required official scrutiny. In a June 2024 email to the county's chief building official, Duncan wrote, "I don't want any problems," and added, "We had to have dirt removed when this all started," and "I want this done right so I don't have to have any calls or surprises."

When contacted this week, Duncan declined to say much by phone and did not reply to an emailed list of questions.

The sources do not specify how many truckloads of soil were delivered, nor is there documented evidence that soil reached the creek or wetlands directly; the hillside drains toward them. Whether the Wiyot-area tribes have been formally notified of the grading activity or the subsequent citation remains unclear, as does the current enforcement status, including any abatement orders, fines, or remediation requirements attached to the citation.