| WASHINGTON -- Four national homebuilders - Centex Homes, KB Home, M.D.C. Holdings, Inc., and Pulte Homes, Inc. - announced Wednesday that they have reached agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice and several state governments concerning compliance with the storm water management provisions of the federal Clean Water Act. The government's inquiry focused on compliance efforts between 2001 and 2004.
The Clean Water Act requires that construction sites have controls in place, such as silt fences, phased site grading, and sediment basins to prevent construction contaminants from being discharged with storm water into nearby waterways.
The government complaints allege a common pattern of violations that was discovered by reviewing documentation submitted by the companies and through federal and state site inspections. The alleged violations include not obtaining permits until after construction had begun or failing to obtain the required permits at all. At the sites that did have permits, violations included failure to prevent or minimize the discharge of pollutants, such as silt and debris, in storm water runoff.
The four separate settlements resolve alleged violations of storm water run-off regulations at construction sites in 34 states and the District of Columbia.
The home builders, Centex Homes, based in Dallas, will pay $1,485,000; KB Home, based in Los Angeles will pay $1,185,000; Pulte Homes, based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., will pay $877,000; and Richmond American Homes, based in Denver will pay $795,000 in penalties.
In addition to the penalties, the settlements require the companies to develop improved pollution prevention plans for each site, increase site inspections and promptly correct any problems that are detected. The companies must properly train construction managers and contractors, and are required to have trained staff at each construction site. They also must implement a management and internal reporting system to improve oversight of on-the-ground operations and submit annual reports to EPA.
Regarding the consent decrees agreed to by each builder, the companies released this joint statement:
"We are pleased to reach an agreement in this matter, which was primarily related to the homebuilders' proper controls and documentation of processes for limiting the amount of sediment in storm water runoff at construction sites. As leaders in the homebuilding industry, we share the government's goal of protecting and preserving clean waterways.
"This process has yielded a storm water management program for residential construction that we believe can be helpful to others in our diverse industry. We look forward to implementing this agreement while continuing to work on improving the federal storm water program."
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