State water board nears ruling in 16-year Moonstone Beach dispute
State water regulators are nearing a ruling in Little River, where Aleksandar Aleksandrov’s farm sits upstream from Moonstone Beach after a 16-year fight.
State water regulators are moving toward a ruling in Little River, where an octogenarian farmer, Aleksandar Aleksandrov, has been locked in a 16-year enforcement dispute over property upstream from Moonstone Beach. The fight centers on Humboldt County Assessor’s Parcel Numbers 208-111-020 and 208-111-021, tied to Otto Farms LLC and OPENROADAGENCY LLC, in a watershed that drains toward the Pacific Ocean.
The California Regional Water Quality Control Board, North Coast Region issued Cleanup and Abatement and 13267 Order No. R1-2021-0053 in 2021 to Aleksandrov, OPENROADAGENCY LLC and Otto Farms LLC. A notice of violation dated Jan. 6, 2023 referenced the same order and the same two parcel numbers, and a second notice dated March 6, 2023 said the recipients were in violation of Required Action No. 3 of the order.
The dispute matters well beyond the farm gate because the property sits in the Little River area just upstream from Moonstone Beach and Little River State Beach. Humboldt County says it monitors ocean water quality near creek mouths that deliver stormwater into the ocean under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s BEACH Act, and Moonstone Beach is sampled weekly by Humboldt Waterkeeper from April 1 to Oct. 31.
The beach’s condition has already become part of the local debate. A Humboldt Baykeeper commentary said Moonstone Beach ranked as the sixth most polluted beach in California on Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card last month, underscoring how runoff or other upstream impacts can affect a stretch of coast many residents use for recreation and beach access.
After 16 years of conflict, the case has become a test of how state environmental enforcement reaches into rural Humboldt land use, especially where a single property, a coastal watershed and a well-known beach meet. The Water Board’s file gives the dispute a specific paper trail, with the 2021 order and the 2023 violation notices marking the latest formal steps in a case that has yet to find a lasting resolution.
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