Posted on 06/23/2021 4:14:16 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
HAZELTON — The West Virginia Department of Transportation has entered into a consent order with the state Department of Environmental Protection for violations of the water pollution control permit at the Interstate 68 Welcome Center near Hazelton.
The order, signed March 10 by Division of Highways District 4 Engineer/Manager Michael Cronin, calls for the DOT to pay up to a total of $75,175 in civil administrative penalties and to hook onto the public sewer system, eliminating the treatment facility at the welcome center.
Half the penalty, $37,587.50, is to be paid to the DEP within 30 days of the effective date of the order. The other half will be held in abeyance, contingent upon completion of the approved schedule of milestones in correcting the violations. If the DOT fails to meet the milestones set forth in the consent order, it has 30 days to pay the second half of the civil penalty.
DOT Legal Division attorney Lisa Balderson said the Division of Highways has signed the order and agreed to comply with the terms. She said District 4 has performed regular maintenance on the facility.
“In the past two to three years, tens of thousands of dollars and countless man hours have been invested in this wastewater plant in an effort to achieve compliance with the state regulations. Specifically, the filter media in all 32 sand filter beds has been replaced, routine pumping of the holding tanks has occurred at least three times per year, UV lights have been replaced as needed, the recirculation tanks have been pumped out, along with countless rakings and cleaning out of the filter beds,” Balderson said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wvnews.com ...
PING!
From one pocket to the other.
I have to laugh. To what extremes will government lawyers go?
Government, meet government.
Federal agencies do that all the time.
OSHA and EPA fine the Navy whenever they get the chance.
Of what good to the public is ever achieved by one of a state’s agencies paying any fine to another of the same state’s agencies??? To demand by civil adjudication the agency in error rectify an error, yes. That much makes sense. Shifting funds from one agency to another as a fine makes no sense.
Dang it! I bet myself this wouldn’t happen. Now I have to pay up.
“From one pocket to the other.”
If it were like the Feds, the WV EPA would give it to a liberal environmental group.
See 9.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.