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George H. Johnson Clean Water Act Settlement

WASHINGTON — An Arizona land developer and a contractor have agreed to settle alleged violations of the Clean Water Act for bulldozing, filling, and diverting approximately five miles of the Santa Cruz River, a major waterway in Arizona, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

According to the settlement, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based developer George H. Johnson, his companies Johnson International, Inc.; and General Hunt Properties, Inc.; and land-clearing contractor, 3-F Contracting, Inc. will pay a combined $1.25 million civil penalty. The penalty is the largest obtained in the history of EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region, and one of the largest in EPA’s history, under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which protects against the unauthorized filling of federally protected waterways through a permit program administered jointly by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The settlement resolves a Clean Water Act complaint filed in 2005 by the Justice Department and EPA against Johnson and his companies for clearing and filling an extensive stretch of the lower Santa Cruz River and a major tributary, the Los Robles Wash, without a permit from the Corps of Engineers.

“Today’s action contributes to EPA's record-shattering enforcement results,” said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “To date, EPA has concluded enforcement actions requiring polluters to spend an estimated $11 billion on pollution controls, clean-up and environmental projects, an all time record for EPA. After these activities are completed, EPA expects annual pollution reductions of more than three billion pounds.”

 

 

For more information contact:

James Vinch
U.S. EPA
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (2243A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-1256
vinch.james@epa.gov

 

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