Wal-Mart Settles Clean Water Act Violations for $3.1 Million

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, May 13, 2004 (ENS) - Retail giant Wal-Mart will pay a $3.1 million civil penalty to settle violations of the federal Clean Water Act's storm water runoff provisions at 24 construction sites across nine states, federal officials said Wednesday. The penalty is a record for storm water construction permitting violations, officials said, and is part of a renewed federal commitment to enforce the regulations.

"We are not stopping with Wal-Mart," said Thomas Sansonetti, assistant attorney general of the U.S. Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "We are going to continue to bring more of these types of enforcement actions nationwide."

The complaint filed against the world's largest retailer included allegations of failure to obtain a permits, to control polluted runoff and to install appropriate sediment and erosion controls before starting construction.

"Complying with the storm water portions of the statute is not that difficult," Sansonetti said. "It requires low cost technology and Wal-Mart's contractors were not doing it."

Wal-Mart, with annual sales of some $245 billion, has more than 4,800 stores and builds more than 200 stores a year across the United States.

This is not the first time Wal-Mart has been found wanting in its compliance with storm water regulations.

In 2001, the company paid $1 million in civil penalties in a similar storm water settlement with federal officials - that case centered on violations at 17 sites across four states.

Wal-Mart builds more than 200 stores each year in the United States. (Photo courtesy Rapides Parish School)

"Developers like Wal-Mart must share responsibility with their construction contractors to ensure compliance," Sansonetti said. "It is everyone's job at construction sites to comply with the law."

The settlement requires Wal-Mart to comply with storm water permitting requirements and to establish a nationwide compliance program for its 150 contractors.

Sansonetti that Wal-Mart will be required to use qualified personnel to oversee construction, conduct training and frequent inspections, report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and take quick corrective actions.

The Justice Department may still pursue individual contractors involved in the alleged violations, Sansonetti said.

The agreement also calls on Wal-Mart to spend $250,000 on a supplement environmental project to help protect sensitive wetlands or waterways in one of the affected states, which are California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Tennessee and Utah are parties to the settlement, which was lodged today for a 30-day public comment period in the U.S. District Court for Delaware.

Wal-Mart and federal officials both said the company hopes to become a "trend setter" in compliance with the program.

Federal officials told reporters at a press briefing that others would be wise to follow the new commitments pledged by the retailer.

"This is important because it publicly kicks of a campaign by the federal government to enforce compliance of storm water runoff regulations," said Thomas Skinner, acting assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

Skinner noted that runoff from construction sites is "a primary contributor to the impairment of water quality in the nation."

Storm water discharges from construction sites contain mud, sediment, oil, grease, algae-producing nutrients, trash and heavy metals.

Polluted storm water runoff can harm or kill fish and other wildlife - sedimentation can destroy aquatic habitat and high volumes of runoff can cause stream bank erosion.

Current storm water regulations, known as Phase II, apply to construction sites from one to five acres in size.

These sites must obtain authorization to discharge storm water via a federal permit - most states are authorized to implement the program.

As much as 30 tons of sediment per acre are eroded into nearby waterways from an average construction site. (Photo courtesy Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)

"Of that third, there is a significant amount of noncompliance with the permits they actually obtain," Skinner said.

That is a worrying statistic - given that there are some 400,000 annual construction starts that fall under the new regulations.

Skinner said enforcement of the regulations is "daunting, but doable."

"The whole goal here is voluntary compliance," said Skinner. "We are not going to get to 400,000 sites a year."

"We are going to rely to some extent on an education campaign and to get the word out that we may not get to all 400,000 but we will get to you," he told reporters.

Neither Skinner nor Sansonetti would reveal other commercial developers and contractors under investigation, but said more cases would be forthcoming.

"This issue is a national priority for the EPA," Skinner said.