Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 12, 2008
4. Water Quality –
KB Home to pay fine in EPA probe of alleged Clean Water Act violations: KB Home is among builders paying a total of $4.3 million for alleged storm-water runoff violations.
Report rebuts cleanup proposal: Scientists say plan to shrink salty irrigation unproven on large scale.
The
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KB Home to pay fine in EPA probe of alleged Clean Water Act violations: KB Home is among builders paying a total of $4.3 million for alleged storm-water runoff violations.
By Tami Abdollah, Staff Writter
builders, including Los Angeles-based KB Home, have agreed to pay $4.3 million in fines to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act involving hundreds of construction sites nationwide, the U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
The four separate settlements are the result of a federal investigation into storm-water management and compliance efforts between 2001 and 2004, according to the companies named in the complaints.
The greatest number of alleged violations occurred in
The complaints allege that the companies violated storm-water runoff regulations at construction sites in 34 states and the
The Clean Water Act requires construction sites to have controls, such as silt fences and sediment basins, to prevent contaminants from flowing into waterways.
Pollutants from concrete, lubricants, paint, pesticides and other debris can mix with storm water, and the runoff can harm or kill fish and wildlife as well as affect drinking water quality.
EPA officials said that addressing those threats has been a high priority for the agency's Pacific Southwest region.
"We had very large sites in Southern California and
Some of the civil penalty money will go to co-plaintiffs
KB Home agreed to pay about $1.2 million, Centex about $1.5 million, Pulte $877,000 and
Pulte also opted to spend $608,000 more to restore damaged areas in the watershed in Mendocino County that are critical to salmon, steelhead trout and two endangered frog species, according to the EPA.
The companies are also required to develop improved pollution prevention plans and storm-water management training programs, increase site inspections and promptly correct errors, among other remedies.
Pulte began implementing a robust storm-water management program in June 2006. More than 2,500 employees, including about 300 from
"We have a greater degree of focus on proper storm-water management, and we're pleased with our progress," Marymee said.
The four companies are among the country's top 10 builders in terms of home purchases and revenue, accounting for more than 124,000 home closings in 2006. EPA officials said they decided to seek nationwide settlements, rather than tackle individual construction sites, because they felt it would have a larger effect on the construction industry.
"These are four of the larger home builders," said Amy Miller, team leader for storm-water enforcement with the EPA's Pacific Southwest region. "I think other home builders will take notice."
In February, the EPA reached a similar settlement with Home Depot, which was required to pay $1.3 million and establish a comprehensive storm-water compliance plan to prevent violations.
Strauss said storm-water violations remain a focus of the agency.
"We have been looking at ports, we've been looking at construction projects, we've been looking, to some extent, at gravel mines," she said.#
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-runoff12-2008jun12,0,1844395.story
Report rebuts cleanup proposal: Scientists say plan to shrink salty irrigation unproven on large scale.
The
By Mark Grossi
Federal scientists say they can't understand how a farmer-backed cleanup plan could reduce salty irrigation drainage that is poisoning land on the
A U.S. Geological Survey report released Wednesday says the plan relies on technologies that have not been proved on a large scale, such as in the 600,000-acre Westlands Water District, which designed the plan for its tainted acreage.
The technologies include intense water purification and evaporation of water on vast gravel beds.
Westlands general manager Thomas Birmingham disagreed with the assessment, adding that the report says nothing new. He said the Panoche Drainage District on the west side already is having success with some of those technologies.
"Our plan employs technologies that have been proven in the real world," he said.
Nevertheless, the USGS suggests setting progress goals for the farmer plan and inviting public agencies to closely monitor the work.
The report was made at the request of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who is considering legislation to support the farmer-backed plan. Feinstein's office has not yet commented on the report.
The lack of a system to drain salty irrigation water is a chronic west-side problem that leaves cropland barren. The mineral-laden water killed thousands of birds in the 1980s when authorities funneled it into large evaporation ponds in western
Now, under court order, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation must clean up the bad water -- at a cost of up to $2.7 billion.
As a cheaper alternative, Westlands last year offered to take over the job and use a combination of land retirement, water purification and evaporation on gravel. West-side farmers have been experimenting with such approaches for years.
In return, Westlands would be forgiven about $100 million of debt related to construction of the Central Valley Project, the state's largest water project. The district also would receive perpetual federal water contracts that would not need to be renegotiated periodically.
But the USGS said the Westlands plan calls for retirement of 100,000 acres, while the Bureau of Reclamation's approach would take 194,000 acres out of production. The retired land would not be irrigated, and no bad drainage would be produced there.
Under Westlands' plan, there would be a lot more drainage than under the federal plan, because more land would continue in crop production, the USGS concluded. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/662618.html
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