OUTLET: Inside Business

By Nate Delesline III
nate.delesline@insidebiz.com

The owner of a nearly 7-acre tract of waterfront land in Norfolk is asking a court to order a neighboring property owner to clean up and remove a fleet of derelict work and cargo vessels from a tributary of the Elizabeth River near the Campostella Bridge.

In a complaint filed late last month in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, 307 Campostella LLC says that Timothy Mullane, the owner of the adjacent property, has created a floating “junkyard” and that he has not followed through on repeated promises to clean up and clear out the waterway.

“Part of the problem is there are all these different agencies that handle different parts of the waterways, and so we tried to work with each of them – the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, who does some enforcement action, the city of Norfolk – because a lot of these vessels were abutting against Riverside Cemetery and the wetlands there,” said 307 Campostella spokeswoman Regina Gomez, who is the sister-in-law of owner Carmelo Gomez.

In the eight-count civil complaint, 307 Campostella says that Mullane and several corporate entities he owns or operates are responsible for obstructing the waterway, operating an unlicensed pier/storage facility and violating the Clean Water Act.

307 Campostella further claims that Mullane has created a nuisance, because “the access by water to and from the plaintiff’s property is substantially impaired by the defendants’ unauthorized obstructions, and as such, the nuisance interferes with the plaintiff’s use of its property.” The complaint says that Mullane’s actions have resulted in lost or reduced rents to the tune of more than $75,000.

Three companies – Lyon Shipyard, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and Marine Contracting Corp. – use the waterway in question, according to court documents.

Lyon Shipyard has a floating dry dock and a small complement of welders, pipe fitters and machinists engaged in ship repair work on 3 acres leased from 307 Campostella.

About three years ago, “we were visited by the Coast Guard because one of Mr. Mullane’s boats was listing and leaking something,” Lyon Shipyard Senior Vice President Ken Kimball said. “We finally had to direct them to the right place, of course.”

Patrick M. Brogan, an attorney with Norfolk-based Davey & Brogan, is named as a co-defendant and the registered agent for one of Mullane’s companies. Brogan did not return an email and phone call seeking comment for this story.

In addition to regulatory officials and the public believing that the derelict boats belong to Lyon Shipyard, which employs about 65 people at the Campostella location and 230 overall, Kimball said navigation in the channel is complicated by the dilapidated boats, an issue which has caused “great difficulty,” according to Kimball.

The complaint filed by 307 Campostella asks the court to order Mullane to eliminate the alleged pollution violations and “pay an appropriate civil penalty to the United States for their violations of the Clean Water Act.” The suit further seeks unspecified compensatory damages and legal fees.

“Right now, the channel is about 220 feet wide, and he’s blocking about 140 feet of that channel with vessels,” Regina Gomez said. “It’s like someone having a junkyard in front of your property or on your street and nobody doing anything to remove it.”

The Coast Guard has made several visits to the property since 2012, Capt. Christopher S. Keane, commander of Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads, said in a statement. In 2012, Keane said the Coast Guard worked to ensure that the pollution threat was addressed by removing all remaining fuel off the vessels.

In a 2013 letter to 307 Campostella attorney James T. Lang, Keane said Coast Guard officials wrote that they “saw no evidence that the vessels in the waterway at that time posed a pollution threat.”

“The letter further stated that, because the vessels were located at the end of an unnamed tributary branch of the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk with no outlet, the vessels did not constitute a waterway blockage or hazard to navigation.”

Although further redress “would have exceeded the Coast Guard’s statutory and regulatory authority,” Keane said the Coast Guard takes threats to navigability and pollution sources very seriously, and that members of the public or people who work for or in the marine industry should report pollution threats or waterway navigation hazards to state and federal agencies.