EPA Fines New Hampshire Company

A construction company based in Bow, N.H., will pay a $60,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated on numerous occassions storm water requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.

R.S. Audley Inc. excavated approximately 1 million cu yd of material from a 300-acre sand and gravel mining operation located in the town of Londonderry, N.H. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) performed inspections revealing that the company made alleged unauthorized discharges of storm water from industrial activities into United States waters. Officials also found that R.S. Audley failed to prepare and implement a storm water pollution prevention plan and failed to apply for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. EPA has alleged that the company discharged storm water into national waters without any or without adequate best management practices to control storm water.

R.S. Audley's alleged storm water violations led to solids being deposited into a tributary to the Merrimack River and a visible sediment plume from the the tributary into the Little Cohas Brook. Among other things, solids can destroy the spawning grounds of fish, increase turbidity and smother sediment-dwelling organisms, all resulting in changes to aquatic flora and fauna. Discharges to the tributary have contributed solids into Little Cohas Brook, which the state of New Hampshire has listed as an impaired water body.

In a prior settlement with other operators of the facility, EPA obtained a settlement penalty of $250,000 and corrective actions to cure the storm water violations.

Source: EPA