01/10/2008: "Avoiding Fines For Water Quality Violations"

The Department of Ecology (Ecology) can have a big hammer when it comes to enforcing water quality violations; but why and when or if, they will swing it or not, is not always clear.

Think for a moment of a construction site in San Juan County, be it in the private sector, or some ground disturbance by public works ( related story), and then read what a company in Seattle was cited for that resulted in a $16,000 fine:

* Failing to prevent vehicles when leaving the site from tracking dirt and mud onto adjoining streets where it can wash into storm drains.

* Failing to install equipment to remove sediments from stormwater entering an on-site treatment system.

* Allowing the soil in cleared areas to remain exposed to rain erosion without adequate stabilization measures.

• Failing to comply with a Notice of Violation issued by Ecology in June 2007 that required corrections to these and other problems.

The lesson to be learned from this is simple. All of the above were included as things not to do in a permit that was issued to the company. So if the permit does not spell out what one can do, and cannot do, it is unlikely that a fine will be imposed.

So why get a permit? Kevin Fitzpatrick, who supervises Ecology’s Water Quality Program at the Northwest Regional Office in Bellevue, had an answer for that one: “These safe practices – if followed – help prevent polluted runoff from construction sites,” and added “Everyone working on projects one acre or larger has an obligation to use these same protections and take them into account when planning each stage of the work.”