Water enforcement accomplishments, fiscal year 2003

2003 Quick Finder
Introduction to Enforcement Accomplishments , FY 2003	Air	Pesticides
Introduction to Enforcement Accomplishments , FY 2003	Land	Supplemental Actions
Emergency Response & Community Right-To-Know	Water	Criminal investigation

In a case involving Sacramento County, CA wetlands, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling affirming the federal government's ability to regulate farming, mining, excavation and other activities that alter or destroy wetlands. Borden Ranch Partnership and AKT Development, the owners of the 8,400-acre Borden Ranch, challenged the authority of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and EPA to regulate deep-ripping, discing, and related activities in waters of the United States. EPA discovered that vernal pool and swale wetlands scattered widely across the large ranch had been destroyed through "deep-ripping" of the previously undisturbed rangeland. AKT paid a $486,040 penalty, and is working with EPA to restore or create wetlands in Sacramento County.

Guam Waterworks Authority and the government of Guam agreed to take specific measures to improve drinking water and wastewater systems that serve 150,000 people. Each of Guam Waterworks' five wastewater treatment plants has a long history of failing to meet permit limits for pollutants discharged from the plants. In the past five years, over 600 million gallons of raw sewage has overflowed from pump stations and sewer lines, flowing onto streets and into bays, rivers and aquifers. These spills have caused weekly beach health advisories and fecal coliform contamination in drinking water wells. The agreement requires Guam Waterworks to complete short-term construction and rehabilitation projects and improve its management and operations and maintenance.

EPA ordered 22 small public water systems in 19 towns across Arizona to monitor their drinking water for lead and copper contamination, as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act. Since 1992, EPA has required public water systems to monitor drinking water regularly for lead and copper and correct any problems through treatment or pipe replacement. The 22 water systems in Arizona serve nearly 3000 people. EPA works with the States to identify significant noncompliers and to prioritize them for enforcement actions, filling gaps if necessary.

Mine owner Phelps Dodge Corp. paid $220,000 for Clean Water Act violations and will spend nearly $12 million to control the surface and groundwater discharges of contaminated water from the United Verde Mine in Jerome, AZ. In a typical year, thousands of pounds of copper and zinc, and hundreds of pounds of cadmium, are discharged into Bitter Creek and have the potential to wash down to the Verde river in wet years and harm aquatic life. Phelps Dodge will cooperate with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and EPA to prevent future discharges.

ExxonMobil Oil Co. paid $4.7 million to resolve California and federal claims against it for a 1991 crude oil spill from a Southern California pipeline into the Santa Clara River. ExxonMobil's spill coated approximately a 15-mile stretch of the river between Los Angeles and Ventura Counties killing or injuring hundreds of birds and dozens of amphibians and mammals. Some of the $4.7 million will be used for habitat restoration projects.