The EPA put out a press launch yesterday that caught my eye and if you happen to’re within the enterprise of constructing issues, together with photo voltaic tasks, it is also price your consideration. The press launch introduced a settlement between a photo voltaic farm developer and the EPA associated to the alleged discharge of “sediment-laden water” from the photo voltaic farm website into “a neighbor’s pond and nicely water”.
First the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the Attorney General’s Office, after which the EPA, introduced these circumstances through the years. These typically contain tasks that take too lengthy to stabilize challenge websites and include stormwater throughout building. Heavy storms throughout building will overwhelm the storm water administration programs which might be constructed and storm water and sediment (you would possibly name it sewage) from the development website will enter close by waterways. “Sediment”, or “dust” is taken into account a “pollutant” underneath the Federal Clean Water Act (and Massachusetts legislation).
Maybe a negotiated penalty of $25,000 is not sufficient to trigger builders to go to nice lengths to maintain the land on their challenge websites throughout building, however it’s best to know that these punishment could be, and sometimes is, very excessive.
One cause that this penalty is probably not increased is the place the water “filled with sediment” ended up: “neighbor’s water” and floor water in a nicely.
Since the choice of the Supreme Court in Sackett v. EPA, the jurisdiction of the Federal Clean Water Act extends solely to the Waters of the United States and the adjoining wetlands that can’t be distinguished from the Waters. And the choice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. Maui tells us that discharges into groundwater are solely coated by the Federal Act if they’re the purposeful equal of a direct discharge into Water of the United States.
One can not inform from the press launch the Waters of the United States closest to the realm in query. The EPA could also be completely satisfied to not sue if the “pond” and nicely water affected listed below are coated by the Clean Water Act for the reason that choices of our nation’s highest courtroom in Sackett and Maui.
But the Massachusetts Clean Waters Act and Wetland Protection Act, and the rules promulgated thereunder, actually apply to such issues and the penalties for violating these legal guidelines are a lot increased. That’s why all builders, together with clear vitality infrastructure, have to do one of the best they will to handle our frequent extreme storms and the impression of stormwater from storms in areas that building or related interactions with EPA or MassDEP and the AG could also be of their future.
