Good laws to protect runoff and good arguments against their size make for a tangle state water regulators have to work out.
An excerpt.
Runoff fines hit builders
By Jennifer K. Morita -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 25, 2006
State water-quality regulators have issued $1.5 million in fines against two Roseville home builders for allowing sediment to flow into environmentally sensitive creeks and vernal pools.
The latest civil liability fine -- issued last week by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board against Fiddyment Ranch developers for $600,000 -- is the third to hit west Roseville developers since April.
Fiddyment Ranch is a 1,678-acre master-planned community being built by development company Signature Properties. Sediment-laden runoff can carry pollutants into creeks and tributaries, poisoning wildlife such as insects, fish and birds.
"We've had some problems in the Roseville area," said Bill Marshall, the board's water program manager. "There's just a tremendous amount of construction going on there and some very large projects, which makes it harder to control the stormwater runoff and makes (the fine) more expensive."
A heftier fine of $900,000 was levied on PL Roseville LLC last month. PL Roseville, developers of the 1,484-acre WestPark community just south of Fiddyment Ranch, includes home builders Pulte Del Webb, Centex and Lennar.
In April, the water board issued a $500,000 fine against a third developer, JMC Homes, for failing to control stormwater runoff from its Longmeadow construction site along Woodcreek Oaks Boulevard. Marshall said he's still working with JMC officials to resolve the issue.
The developers contend the amount of recent fines exceeds the actual damage to the environment and contributes to rising home prices.
Fiddyment Ranch spokesman John Bayless said his company has spent $3 million over the past two years to prevent discharges into creeks. Some measures included fiber rolls and blankets and a pond system with pumps manned 24 hours a day. Bayless said Signature also treated water with chemicals that cause sediment particles to cling together and settle, allowing only clear water to flow into creeks.
Bayless said, "We've done our best to comply with the regulations. … It was an extreme winter with back-to-back storm events. There were very high creek flows and very turbid water."
