The federal government and its partners announced that James Pflueger will pay over $7.5 million for Clean Water Act violations associated with construction activities on his property at Pilaa on Kauai, Hawaii, as part of the nation's largest stormwater settlement for violations at a single site by a single landowner.

“The unauthorized construction work at Pilaa did not incorporate stormwater erosion control measures required by permits issued under the Clean Water Act. These measures would have prevented the extensive damage caused by Pflueger's construction,” said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “This settlement will reduce erosion, restore stream systems and native plant habitats, resulting in healthier stream, ocean and reef ecosystems.”

The Pilaa site encompasses approximately 378 acres of coastal property on Kauai, the northernmost island in the Hawaiian chain. Pflueger conducted grading and other land-disturbing construction at the site beginning in 1997 without obtaining permits. The activities included cutting away a hillside to create a 40-foot vertical road cut, grading a coastal plateau, creating new access roads to the coast, and placing dirt and rock fill into three perennial streams. As a result of this construction activity, discharges of sediment-laden stormwater have flowed to the Pacific Ocean at Pilaa Bay, damaging a beachfront home, the beach and coral reefs.

For more information, visit www.epa.gov/region09/water/npdes/pflueger. A copy of the consent decree lodged today is available on the Department of Justice website at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/open.html.