Amador County – The City of Ione late last month received a notice of violation for delinquent monitoring reports at its wastewater treatment plant, and could face a $2.56 million fine. Ione City Manager Kim Kerr said the remaining three reports will be finished and sent to her this week by contractors, and the city should expect to pay less that the sum indicated on a letter from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. Kerr said: “That’s definitely the worst-case scenario. We don’t expect to be paying that much.” The fines are based on late reports of groundwater sampling, required with wastewater discharges. Steve E. Rosenbaum, senior engineering geologist for the regional board, wrote a letter January 28th to Kerr, in which he said a review of the Ione’s wastewater facility reporting from “January 2006 to the present revealed that of the 46 reports due during this time frame, 39 were submitted after the due date.” According to water code, he said failure to submit Waste Discharge Requirements reports “within 30 days from the due date is a priority violation. For the period reviewed, ... Ione has accrued 19 late report priority violations.” Rosembaum said the “most egregious of these reporting violations are the delinquent quarterly groundwater monitoring reports. The failure to submit the quarterly groundwater monitoring reports for the past 5 quarters constitutes a serious failure on the part of the city and gross violation of the WDRs.” Kerr said Ione is not in compliance, adding, “I knew we had a problem. I didn’t know that it was that bad.” The City Council sent out Requests For Proposals last October for a contractor to update and report on samples taken but not reported. The city signed a contract with Condor Earth Technologies Incorporated in November. She said 3 reports remain to be filed, including 2007 and 2008 Annual Reports, and a First Quarter Report from 2008, all 3 of which she expected to get this week. The Rosembaum letter said the annual reports were due February 1st. Condor reported that one required surface water sample was not performed in the second quarter of 2008, which Kerr said would have to be reported as such. She was unsure of the fine amount, but said once the reports are completed, “we will go from there.” Kerr said the issue was to be discussed at last night’s city council meeting, to update council members. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Wednesday, 04 February 2009 00:19
Ione Faces Huge Fine For Late Water Reports
Amador County – The City of Ione late last month received a notice of violation for delinquent monitoring reports at its wastewater treatment plant, and could face a $2.56 million fine. Ione City Manager Kim Kerr said the remaining three reports will be finished and sent to her this week by contractors, and the city should expect to pay less that the sum indicated on a letter from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. Kerr said: “That’s definitely the worst-case scenario. We don’t expect to be paying that much.” The fines are based on late reports of groundwater sampling, required with wastewater discharges. Steve E. Rosenbaum, senior engineering geologist for the regional board, wrote a letter January 28th to Kerr, in which he said a review of the Ione’s wastewater facility reporting from “January 2006 to the present revealed that of the 46 reports due during this time frame, 39 were submitted after the due date.” According to water code, he said failure to submit Waste Discharge Requirements reports “within 30 days from the due date is a priority violation. For the period reviewed, ... Ione has accrued 19 late report priority violations.” Rosembaum said the “most egregious of these reporting violations are the delinquent quarterly groundwater monitoring reports. The failure to submit the quarterly groundwater monitoring reports for the past 5 quarters constitutes a serious failure on the part of the city and gross violation of the WDRs.” Kerr said Ione is not in compliance, adding, “I knew we had a problem. I didn’t know that it was that bad.” The City Council sent out Requests For Proposals last October for a contractor to update and report on samples taken but not reported. The city signed a contract with Condor Earth Technologies Incorporated in November. She said 3 reports remain to be filed, including 2007 and 2008 Annual Reports, and a First Quarter Report from 2008, all 3 of which she expected to get this week. The Rosembaum letter said the annual reports were due February 1st. Condor reported that one required surface water sample was not performed in the second quarter of 2008, which Kerr said would have to be reported as such. She was unsure of the fine amount, but said once the reports are completed, “we will go from there.” Kerr said the issue was to be discussed at last night’s city council meeting, to update council members. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
