Arizona Developer Fined for Altering Santa Cruz River

Arizona Developer Fined for Altering Santa Cruz River





October 2008  - An Arizona land developer and a 
contractor have agreed to pay one of the largest fines in the history of 
the U.S. EPA to settle alleged violations of the Clean Water Act for 
bulldozing, filling, and diverting five miles of the Santa Cruz River, a 
major waterway in Arizona. 
According to the settlement lodged last week in U.S. District Court in 
Phoenix, developer George H. Johnson of Scottsdale, his companies Johnson 
International, Inc.; and General Hunt Properties, Inc.; and land-clearing 
contractor, 3-F Contracting, Inc. will pay a combined $1.25 million civil 
penalty to the United States. 
The Johnson defendants will pay $1 million and 3-F Contracting, Inc. will 
pay $250,000. 
The combined penalty is the largest obtained in the history of EPA's 
Pacific Southwest Region, and one of the largest in EPA's history. 
"A seven-figure penalty in this type of enforcement case is virtually 
unprecedented," said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the 
Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "It 
underscores the Justice Department's commitment to enforce the nation's 
laws that protect valuable water resources in Arizona and other arid 
western states, and to hold violators of those laws accountable." 

The settlement resolves a Clean Water Act complaint filed in 2005 by the 
Justice Department and the EPA against Johnson and his companies for 
clearing and filling an extensive stretch of the lower Santa Cruz River 
and a major tributary, the Los Robles Wash, without a permit from the 
Corps of Engineers. 
They allegedly violated sections of the Act that protect against the 
unauthorized filling of federally protected waterways through a permit 
program administered jointly by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 
"The Santa Cruz River is a gem in Arizona's crown, as it flows from 
Arizona to Mexico back into Arizona, sustaining life, habitat for animals 
and plants, and providing so many benefits for residents of southern 
Arizona," said Alexis Strauss, director of EPA's Water Division for the 
Pacific Southwest Region. 
"This settlement reflects both the strong emphasis EPA places on 
protecting this important watershed and the seriousness of the alleged 
violations," she said. 
The alleged violations occurred in 2003 and early 2004, when defendants 
bulldozed 2,000 acres of the historic King Ranch and La Osa Ranch in Pinal 
County, Arizona, discharging dirt, spoil, rock and sand, all of which 
constitute "pollutants" as defined in the Clean Water Act. 
The bulldozed areas lie within the largest active floodplain of the lower 
Santa Cruz River, which meanders through the two ranches in natural 
braids, a rarity for this heavily channelized waterway. 
Prior to defendants' land-clearing activities, this stretch of the Santa 
Cruz River supported a rich variety of vegetation, including one of the 
few extensive mesquite forests remaining in Arizona's Sonoran Desert 
region. 
These areas form a critical corridor for wildlife to move along the Santa 
Cruz River and from Picacho Peak State Park to the Ironwood Forest 
National Monument. 
The case was referred to the EPA by the Corps of Engineers after concerned 
citizens, tribes, and local, state and federal agencies complained about 
the serious flooding dangers and ecological impacts in connection with 
defendants' land-clearing activities. 
The Johnson defendants sold the ranches in 2004. 
In their complaint, the EPA and Justice Department had asked that the 
defendants restore those parts of the Santa Cruz River they had altered 
and/or to conduct off-site mitigation for unrestorable environmental 
damage, but these requests do not form part of the settlement agreed by 
Johnson and his contractor. 
The proposed consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court in Phoenix, 
is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of 
the proposed consent decree is available on the Justice Department Web 
site at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html. 





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