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Alaska Property Owner Agrees to pay $15,300 for tidelands violation

Release Date: 12/16/2008
Contact Information: Mark Jen, EPA Wetlands Program, (907) 271-3411, [email protected] Tony Brown, EPA Public Affairs, (206) 553-1203, [email protected]

(Sitka, Alaska – December 16, 2008) Allen Marine, Inc., of Sitka, Alaska, has reached a $15,300 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. The violation involved placement of fill material below the High Tide Line (HTL) of Sitka Sound, a navigable water of the United States, without a permit.

According to EPA, in June 2005, fill material was discharged onto 0.25 acres of intertidal areas on Allen Marine’s property. The parcel is adjacent to the Alaska Marine Ferry Terminal in Sitka, Alaska.

In January 2008, Allen Marine removed the unauthorized fill material and regraded the area to natural conditions as required under an EPA Administrative Compliance Order issued in August 2007.

According to Marcia Combes, EPA’s Alaska Operations Director, intertidal areas of Alaska provide important habitat for fish and other wildlife, which support the economy of this state.

“Construction activities in the intertidal areas of Alaska should be undertaken after careful planning and obtaining the necessary permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” said EPA’s Combes. “If you conduct work in intertidal areas, you must obey the law or face fines.”

Allen Marine had previously applied for and received Clean Water Act permits for work in navigable waters of the United States in the Sitka area. This penalty action will serve as a deterrent against future violations of the Clean Water Act by Allen Marine and other land owners.

Fiscal year 2008 was record-setting enforcement year for EPA nationally. In aggregate, concluded enforcement actions required polluters to spend an estimated $11 billion on cleanup and pollution control projects, netting an expected three billion pounds of pollution reductions annually.

For more information about Wetlands protection work, visit:
http://epa.gov/owow/wetlands

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