TOPEKA — The Environmental Protection Agency has fined the Kansas Department of Transportation $477,500 for violations of the Clean Water Act at three road construction sites, including the new U.S. 59 expressway near Lawrence. KDOT said today it has agreed to pay the fine. EPA Region 7 officials inspected the U.S. 59 project near Lawrence in August 2010, the U.S. 69 project near Pleasanton in Linn county in November 2008, and the K-18 project near Manhattan in May 2012. The EPA said violations included the failure to install or implement adequate stormwater control measures, including the failure to stabilize disturbed soils in a timely manner, the failure to properly maintain stormwater controls, the failure to develop an adequate stormwater pollution prevention plan and update the plan as appropriate, and the failure to maintain the plan and other records on site. EPA said it documented hundreds of violations based on site inspections and information requests. Because the amount of stormwater runoff that occurs during construction of Kansas roads and highways, effective stormwater management is necessary to protect water, EPA Region 7 administrator Karl Brooks said. As a part of the fine and court settlement, KDOT has agreed to complete significant measures to correct the situations, including designating a stormwater compliance manager to oversee stormwater compliance statewide and to designate a stormwater compliance manager for each site. The consent decree also requires inspections by third parties who weren’t part of the projects to conduct additional inspections at environmentally sensitive areas in Kansas or where the downstream lakes or rivers are impaired for sediment. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by a federal court.
Tuesday, July 2, 4 p.m.
