San Diego sues developers over contaminated soil in local landfill

SAN DIEGO (CN) — The city of San Diego is suing a local developer after it says the developer dumped contaminated soil in a local landfill.

The complaint, filed on Thursday in San Diego Superior Court, claims that Manchester Financial Group and a subcontractor, AMG Demolition & Environmental Service, breached their contract with the city when they dumped waste in the South Chollas landfill in the Oak Park neighborhood in 2018 and 2019.

The companies said it was "clean native soil." In fact, the soil was “so saturated with liquids that it was dripping from the trucks along the route to the landfill and emitted a foul odor after it was deposited," the city claims in its complaint. It says the soil was mixed with trash, wood debris, concrete, asphalt, metal and plastic from a construction project.

The city hopes to recover damages related to the cleanup effort — including having to move the contaminated soil from the South Chollas landfill to the Miramar landfill. In a press release, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott said the cleanup efforts cost taxpayers $5 million.

“MPG ignored our environmental laws, demonstrated a blatant disregard for regulatory directives and broke nearly every commitment made to the city leaders, leaving San Diego taxpayers to foot the bill for millions of dollars in clean up costs,” Elliott stated. “The City of San Diego will not tolerate that type of corporate misconduct.”  

The soil in question comes from the Manchester Pacific Gateway-Navy Broadway Complex, a 14-acre development project on land that Manchester Financial leased from the Navy in 2006.

The project was supposed to include a hotel, office and retail, built in exchange for construction of a new regional headquarters building for the Navy. A 17-story Navy building was built in 2020. Also in 2020, Manchester sold off eight acres to a biotech company called IQHQ. 

A website for the Manchester Pacific Gateway project rhapsodizes about a thousand-plus-room hotel on the remainder of the property. It would include a “1.9 acre plaza and cultural space” equipped with retail, dining, entertainment areas and public parking, all of it “envisioned by Papa Doug Manchester,” the chair of Manchester Financial Group.

“MPG’s attempt to saddle development costs on city taxpayers while contaminating our environment is reprehensible,” Elliott said in her press release. “Far away from the glitzy waterfront office towers Manchester developed live hundreds of thousands of hard-working San Diegans who pay their taxes, play by the rules, and deserve better than what they have received from this callous corporation.”   

Representatives of Manchester Financial Group and AMG Demolition & Environmental Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

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