BY CHRISTOPHER SOUTH
Chester NY (7/4/2018) – The state Department of Environmental Conservation cited the Town of Chester for having no records or plans related to the wastewater that goes down floor drains at the highway department garage and landfill. The town has held off on addressing the violations because the money was not in last year’s budget. Besides the fine, the cost for curing the violations is expected to exceed $15,000.
The enforcement office of the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has fined the Town of Chester for violations related to floor drains at the highway department garage and landfill.
Chestertown Supervisor Craig Leggett told the town board last month that the DEC had issued an order of consent, which the town needed to sign, and the DEC needed to sign off on the town’s work plan.
The DEC fined the town $7,600, payable over three years, for not correcting the violations in a timely manner.
The town was issued a notice of violation dated July 11, 2017 and reminded in a follow-up letter dated Nov. 21, 2017.
The town received letters on Jan. 19 and March 1 saying the violations had not been corrected, and the matter was being referred to the state DEC Region 5 attorney for enforcement.
At the town’s board meeting last month, Leggett said they had not acted fast enough to correct the violations but added that the more than $15,000 needed to remedy the problem was not in the 2017 budget, but was put into the current budget.
Leggett said the $15,000 is an estimate for holding tanks that would be part of a wastewater treatment system and does not include treatment and monitoring devices. The town has also engaged Cedarwood Engineering to evaluate and report on the current wastewater treatment system.
Leggett said the grease and oil that ends up washed down the drain would settle and could be removed and filtered through a leach field. The DEC recommended either sealing the floor drain or putting diking around a fuel storage tank.
“That is all up in the air,” Leggett said, adding that the town, its engineer and the DEC have been meeting about a treatment plan and the town is waiting for the DEC to approve the plan.
Vincent Spadaro, environmental program specialist with the DEC’s Division of Water, sent a letter dated March 1 to Chestertown Highway Superintendent Jason Monroe, in which Spadaro said he inspected the town highway garage and landfill on Feb. 16.
As a result of his announced inspection, he found floor drains at both facilities which discharge to state waters and might require a state pollutant discharge elimination system (SPDES) permit.
The letter indicates the town has “no records or plans of the wastewater conveyance and treatment systems (if present) at both locations,” and no SPDES permit, and the matter was being referred to the state DEC Region 5 regional attorney.
The letter says violations referenced in the letter subject the town to a civil fine not to exceed $37,500 per day for each violation and are subject to injunctive relief.
The Jan. 19 letter, which came from Benjamin Hankins, DEC assistant environmental engineer, referred to a notice of violation issued July 11, 2017, and a follow-up letter dated Nov. 21, 2017, regarding a petroleum bulk storage (PBS) program site.
The letter refers to three tanks and says it had been over six months since the July 2017 notice of violation, and the town had not yet addressed the violations, including: the PBS registration certificate had not been signed and displayed as required; problems associated with a floor drain had not been addressed; secondary containment equipment was not maintained; monthly inspection reports for above ground petroleum storage tanks were “quite apparent” to be photocopies of one previous report with the dates changed; reports provided showed daily inspections, including weekends, rather than monthly inspections; one tank had two installation dates listed; and the spill bucket on one tank needed to be “locked to prevent an accidental release of product to the environment.”
The Jan. 19 letter says the matter was being “referred to the office of general counsel for further enforcement,” resulting in the $7,600 fine which the town attempted to have reduced or eliminated.
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