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Press Release
Most press releases concerning Brownfield topics will be sent to the Sho-Ban News in Fort Hall, Idaho. Press releases will also be posted on this website on the "News" page.
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EPA takes a close look at potential local Clean Water Act violations
BY DAN BOYD dboyd@journalnet.com
Idaho State Journal May 3, 2007
POCATELLO — Seeking to clamp down on potential pollution problems, an Environmental Protection Agency team came to Pocatello last week to conduct investigations on several local construction sites. With scrutiny of debris runoff and erosion heightened during the past five years, EPA’s inspections could lead to fines if local developers aren’t found to be in compliance. The recent track record of local developers in regard to meeting such federal Clean Water Act rules is less than stellar. After a round of inspections in 2004, all seven Pocatelloarea construction sites visited were found to be in violation and were slapped with fines. And on Wednesday, two North Idaho developers settled with the EPA on more than $9,000 in penalties.
Mark MacIntyre, an EPA spokesman in Seattle, said any penalties stemming from last week’s visits could be announced in the upcoming months. “We have been out there looking around,” MacIntyre confirmed. “But as of right now, we don’t have anything ready to go.” Among the sites reportedly inspected was the controversial City Creek Estates, a 65-home development on Pocatello’s west bench. The two developers in charge of that project, Ron Miller and Clint Stephens, have largely shunned the spotlight since their modified plan was approved in 2005. When asked Tuesday about the EPA inspections, Miller hung up the phone. Such a reaction didn’t surprise MacIntyre. “Some people get pretty stressed out about where they are in the process,” he said.
The City Creek project became a lighting rod for criticism when it was first announced in 2005. Concerned about local sprawl and damage to the historic Pocatello neighborhood, residents banded together to form an organization in opposition to the project.
But Miller and Stephens argued the project fell well within city guidelines and said if they didn’t do the project, someone else would.
A compromise including a new access road was eventually reached in August 2005 after former Sixth District Judge Randy Smith helped broker an accord.
John Sigler, the City of Pocatello’s senior environmental coordinator, said new criteria put into place in 2003 means Pocatello-area developers face the same challenges many big-city operators must comply with.
Before 2003, EPA storm water provisions — which basically prohibit any debris or sedimentation to flow into local watersheds — applied only to construction sites 5 acres or larger in urban areas of 100,000 people, Sigler said.
Now, however, the provisions have been extended to any sites 1 acre or larger in areas with 50,000 or more inhabitants. To keep up with the changes, Pocatello’s new federal storm water permit became official on Dec. 15, 2006.
Sigler said the goal of protecting local rivers and streams means any developers targeting the outskirts of Pocatello will find the going a bit more tedious than their predecessors.
“It’s not that the benches are being looked at in any different light,” Sigler said. “We’re trying to mirror the requirements of the federal government.”
But though some might view the changes as getting tough on development, he said that’s not necessarily the case.
Said Sigler, “The requirements have been there for a long time.”
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