The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice reached an agreement with Garden Homes and its affiliated companies to settle its alleged failure to control storm water discharges. These failures potentially resulted in pollutant discharges to the Passaic, Hackensack, Rahway, Raritan, Saddle and Delaware River watersheds.
The agreement requires Garden Homes to pay a $225,000 penalty and implement measures to improve the company’s stormwater practices. In addition, the company has agreed to provide 108 acres of land for preservation within the Highlands Preservation Area in Morris County, N.J., protecting it from possible future development. This land contains approximately 23 acres of wetlands adjacent to the Berkshire Valley Wildlife Management Area and in the Highlands Preservation Area—a critical drinking water protection area for the state of New Jersey.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, developers and contractors responsible for operations at construction sites 1 acre or larger are required to implement storm water pollution prevention plans to keep soil and contaminants from running off into nearby waterways. These plans can include measures such as the establishment of sediment barriers, the implementation of controls to hinder storm water flowing onto the construction site and the protection of slopes. Water carries soil and contaminants off of construction sites at a rate typically 10 to 20 times greater than that from agricultural lands and 1,000 to 2,000 times greater than that from forested lands.
Under the settlement, Garden Homes will undertake a corporate-wide evaluation of its existing storm water practices and develop a corporate-wide storm water management program. In addition, Garden Homes will designate one of its employees as its company storm water manager, who will be responsible for preparing all storm water pollution prevention plans, developing and overseeing storm water compliance training and conducting unannounced site inspections, among other responsibilities. The company will also designate individual site storm water managers for its various sites. EPA estimates the value of these measures to be $539,000 for the first year and approximately $380,057 annually thereafter.
The complaint alleged that Garden Homes violated numerous storm water requirements at 10 of the company’s sites in New Jersey by failing to conduct and document weekly inspections; failing to install perimeter silt fencing along the perimeter of construction sites; failing to maintain a spill kit on site; and allowing fuel to spill on the ground uphill from an unprotected catch basin, among other allegations. The violations at issue in this case were found at multiple construction sites owned and/or operated by Garden Homes through its affiliates. These repetitive violations continued to persist despite two administrative penalty actions taken by the EPA against affiliates of Garden Homes.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Garden Homes will donate land within the Highlands Preservation Area as a supplemental environmental project. This donation of land will further aid in the recovery of threatened and endangered species, particularly the Indiana Bat and bog turtle, which have a known presence in the vicinity.
