The luxury home builder Toll Brothers will pay a $741,000 civil penalty and make major changes to the way it manages stormwater on its construction sites, following allegations that it violated the Clean Water Act on more than 600 occasions. The settlement, announced Wednesday by federal officials, addresses 370 sites in 23 states.
Among the permit violations alleged by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice were the “failure to stabilize disturbed soil” and the failure to properly install and maintain “stormwater controls such as silt fences, swales, sediment basins, sediment traps, storm drain inlet protection, and construction entrances and exits.”
Failing to properly control sediment can lead to increased turbidity in nearby streams and decreased oxygen levels in the water, according to the EPA. It can affect fish populations directly by destroying their spawning beds and indirectly by reducing the amount of sunlight that enters the water and reaches underwater plants. In addition to sediment, other pollutants often run off construction sites and can have a detrimental impact on water quality.
The consent decree filed yesterday requires Toll Brothers to designate a national stormwater compliance manager, division level managers, and site specific managers who will be responsible for making sure that proper stormwater management practices are in place during construction. Toll Brothers will also be required to make regular reports to the EPA.
The EPA estimates that as a result of the settlement, “the sediment discharged in stormwater runoff will be reduced annually by 217 million pounds from Toll Brothers sites nationwide, with a reduction of approximately 21 million pounds per year within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.”
Toll Brothers declined to comment for this story.
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