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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 1996
96-124
CONTACT:
Bob Wright (206) 649-7060
Ron Langley (206) 649-7009
WAL-MART SETTLES PENALTY WITH WETLAND AND STREAM WORK
BREMERTON-- The Wal-Mart Corporation has agreed to restore a wetland and pay for stream enhancements in a settlement of the state’s largest construction-related stormwater penalty.
In exchange for the $64,000 penalty levied against the company by the Department of Ecology last January, Wal-Mart has agreed to pay $34,000 to restore a forested wetland on property it owns near its store north of Bremerton, and will contribute $19,000 to the Mid-Sound Regional Enhancement Group to enhance salmon habitat in area streams. The company will provide another $6,000 for a three-year sponsorship of the Kitsap County Water Festival and will pay a $5,000 penalty to the state.
“This settlement directs most of the penalty money back into the environment in Kitsap County," said Ecology Water Quality Program Manager Mike Llewelyn.
“Wal-Mart will do all of this work in addition to removing silt and sediment that eroded from its construction site into adjacent streams," said Llewelyn. “The total cost to the company will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars -- far more than the cost of doing proper erosion control in the first place."
Wal-Mart was penalized for allowing silt- and sediment-contaminated stormwater runoff to choke Steele Creek, which originates near the site of its Bremerton-area store. The Washington State Fish and Wildlife Department said it may take several years for the creek to recover from damage caused by sediment carried into it by stormwater from the then-exposed construction site. The penalty is the largest fine Ecology has issued for violations of an Industrial Stormwater Permit for Construction Activities.
Llewelyn said the company corrected some of the problems at the construction site, now a finished facility. Sediment will be removed from the heaviest areas of accumulation near the site’s stormwater outfall before the end of September. All stream enhancement work and the wetland restoration will be completed before the end of next year’s construction season.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
