Imperial council OKs $78K settlement

IMPERIAL — A $78,000 settlement was recently reached between the city of Imperial and the state Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board for a series of alleged violations.

The alleged violations occurred between February 2013 and March 2018 and stemmed from excessive levels of pollutants such as copper and fecal coliform found in the city’s wastewater discharge.

In March, the RWQCB had initially o ered the city the opportunity to pay a smaller settlement but on Aug. 1 increased that amount by $12,000 after the agency reclassified some of the alleged violations from “chronic” to “serious.”

The settlement was approved by the City Council during its Aug. 21 regular meeting. The resolution authorizing the settlement’s approval had appeared in the meeting’s consent agenda and did not prompt any discussion among council members.

The settlement allows the city to avoid any enforcement action by the RWQCB that could potentially have included administrative civil penalties totaling $10,000 per day per violation, the settlement stated.

The settlement also precludes the RWQCB from referring the alleged violations to the state Attorney General’s Office for possible prosecution.

All told, there was a total of 32 alleged violations, with seven of those being characterized as chronic violations, 19 characterized as serious violations and six listed as non-applicable. The assessed individual penalty for each chronic and serious violation was $3,000.

City officials indicated during the Aug. 21 meeting that the issues have been addressed and that pollutants remained below effluent limitations.

During the meeting, a member of the community expressed displeasure that the resolution to authorize the settlement had appeared in the consent agenda, where multiple items are typically considered and approved all together without any discussion.

In response, city officials explained that the settlement represented a nonnegotiable mandatory minimum payment and that its legal nature largely precluded the city’s options and, therefore, discussion.

“There isn’t a lot of give and take of what the penalties are ultimately going to be,” said Dennis Morita, the city’s attorney.