EPA Enforcement Roundup: Week of 4/7

The EPA Enforcement Roundup gives you insight into how and why US EPA and State partners assess penalties for environmental noncompliance.

All violations or claims discussed below are alleged only unless we say otherwise, and we withhold the names of organizations and individuals to protect their privacy.

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Two water plant workers face charges for alleged criminal environmental violations in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma County alleges that a former worker and the former plant manager committed multiple felonies in willfully allowing waste to leak into a nearby creek. In 2022, regulators discovered improperly treated and raw wastewater pooled in a creek near the plant.

The two face felony counts of violating the Oklahoma Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Act and obtaining property by trick and deception. One of the former employees reportedly admitted to falsifying reports submitted to US EPA and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

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In Massachusetts, a real estate developer was fined for building on contaminated soil without the required EHS plans in place.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, or MassDEP, discovered environmental violations during a compliance inspection of a property where access to the soil was restricted due to the presence of contaminants.

MassDEP found the company disturbed soils when installing a parking lot and building slab without having a Soil Management Plan, a Health and Safety Plan, or a Building Slab Maintenance Plan. For these alleged violations, the company was fined $13,750.

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An ATV dealer was ordered to pay a $25,000 penalty in Nevada for alleged violations of the Nebraska Environmental Protection Act.

Nebraska’s Department of Environment and Energy alleged that the dealer violated the Nebraska Environmental Protection Act by improperly storing tires on its property without a permit, polluting the land and air of the state when those tires accidentally caught fire, and polluting the air and land of the state by burning cardboard on its property without a permit.

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Tags: EPA Enforcement Roundup