LA Water Board settles with companies over construction site violations

Four local companies reached settlements with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board for unauthorized discharges or failure to implement measures to eliminate or reduce pollutants at their construction sites.

Of the four, GLC El Monte LLC agreed to pay the largest fine – $208,468 for unlawfully discharging sediment-laden stormwater into Eaton Wash in February 2019 and failing to comply with the best management practices required by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for storm water discharges associated with construction and land disturbance activities.

Best management practices are designed to eliminate or reduce pollutants such as excess sediment from flowing from construction sites into waterbodies. In this instance, the storm drain releases potentially impacted a tributary of the Rio Hondo River that begins in Irwindale and passes through several cities.

The other three companies listed below, whose settlements also were approved by the Los Angeles Water Board earlier this month, were resolved as follows:

• CLG Hollywood, LLC will pay $92,595 for starting construction on a Marina del Rey apartment complex before obtaining the required permit and failing to comply with best management practices. The permit was acquired approximately three weeks after the regional board issued a violation notice in April 2019. After the permit was secured, staff found best practices were nonexistent or ineffective
  throughout the site.
• The Petak Family Trust agreed to a $70,773 penalty for performing modifications within Altamira Canyon Creek in Ranchos Palos Verdes without a federal Clean Water Act water quality certification. The unpermitted work, conducted from 2015-17 on property owned by the Petak family, involved the placement of gabion boxes and a concrete retaining wall and bottom that destroyed wildlife habitat, including habitat for rare, threatened or endangered species.
• Millennium Diamond Road Partners, LLC and Tiffany Cheung will pay $39,446 for failing to implement proper erosion control measures at their construction site in Diamond Bar that caused sediment-laden stormwater discharges into Coyote Creek. Besides violating water quality standards and construction permit requirements, the parties did not respond to an investigative order. In addition to the financial sanction, the corporation is prohibited from performing any work in connection with programs administered, funded or directed by the State Water Resources Control Board or its nine regional boards for five years.