Syracuse Developer to Pay NY's Biggest Stormwater Fine

Widewaters Greenport Co. LLC has agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to resolve numerous stormwater violations at the development and must also temporarily stop work on the site until state officials approve the company's stormwater prevention plan.

Widewaters is headquartered in Syracuse. Its $70 million Greenport Commons project is a 500,000 square foot retail center in Columbia County that is expected to be anchored by Lowe's and a Wal-Mart super center.

Sign welcomes visitors to the town of Greenport, New York. (Photo credit unknown)

The violations at the Greenport development occurred because the company started work without putting in place proper erosion control and sediment control measures, as required by the company's stormwater pollution prevention plan.

Also, Widewaters had not secured written permission to disturb more than five acres - when, in fact, almost 40 acres of soil had been disturbed and were left exposed and vulnerable to erosion from a rain event.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis and Region 4 Director Gene Kelly said that as part of the settlement, Widewaters must hire an independent inspector, in addition to the required existing daily inspector, to monitor the construction site at least twice every seven days to ensure compliance with their stormwater pollution prevention plan.

The inspector must compile and submit to the Department of Environmental Conservation a weekly report detailing compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

"Widewaters exhibited a blatant disregard for the stormwater regulations of the state and created the potential for a significant water-quality violation," Kelly said.

"Luckily, we had a long stretch of dry weather which averted any significant turbid discharges to the nearby Claverack Creek," he said. "The magnitude of this penalty, which is the largest stormwater penalty in the state's history, reflects the seriousness with which DEC views violations of this sort."

Marco Marzocchi, general counsel for real estate development at Widewaters, based in the town of DeWitt, declined to say exactly how the problem occurred. He told the Albany "Times Union" newspaper that the company would not dispute the state's findings.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.