The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a settlement with Starostka-Lewis LLC for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act, including unauthorized discharges of pollutants from the company’s residential construction site in Lincoln, Nebraska, into an adjacent stream. Under the terms of the settlement, the company agreed to pay a civil penalty of $60,009.
According to EPA, Starostka-Lewis LLC violated terms of a Clean Water Act permit issued to the company for its Dominion at Stevens Creek residential construction site. EPA inspected the site in 2019 and alleges that, among other permit violations, the company failed to implement practices to limit the release of construction pollution into streams and other waters. EPA says those failures resulted in discharges of sediment and construction-related pollutants into a tributary to Stevens Creek and Waterford Lake.
In the settlement documents, Starostka-Lewis certified that it took the necessary steps to return to compliance.
Under the Clean Water Act, companies that propose to disturb an acre or more of land in proximity to protected water bodies are required to obtain stormwater construction permits and to follow the requirements outlined in those permits in order to reduce pollution runoff. Failure to obtain a permit or to follow the requirements of a permit may violate federal law.