Attorneys for land owner and auto dealer James Pflueger said they are “shocked” after the Environmental Protection Agency slapped him with the second fine in a month for what it cites is failure to comply with a court ordered cleanup
Attorneys for land owner and auto dealer James Pflueger said they are “shocked” after the Environmental Protection Agency slapped him with the second fine in a month for what it cites is failure to comply with a court ordered cleanup at Pila‘a.
The EPA yesterday announced that they were hitting Pflueger with an additional $135,000 fine for construction delays, something his attorneys are calling a “nightmarish catch-22,” because, they claim, the county has failed to provide Pflueger with permits for the work.
Dean Higuchi, spokesman for the EPA, said even if the county failed to provide permits to Pflueger, it was still his responsibility to alert the EPA that he couldn’t follow the schedule set forth in a June consent decree.
The reason for stipulated penalties is to stave off work delays, Higuchi said.
The $135,000 penalty comes shortly after another penalty was issued last week for $23,500 for other missed deadlines including an abandoned supplemental environmental project that would have replaced cesspools in Kalihiwai.
That money doesn’t include a $2 million penalty Pflueger was ordered to pay the state, nor the $5.3 million in repair required to prevent erosion.
One of Pflueger’s attorneys, Wesley Ching, said in a prepared statement that Pflueger has “stepped up to the plate to settle this matter.”
That includes making payments, on time, to the state for $1.2 million and the EPA for $830,000, he said.
Pflueger’s property at Pila’a encompasses approximately 378 acres of coastal property, of which Pflueger conducted grading and other land-disturbing construction at the site beginning in 1997 without obtaining permits, according to a statement issued by the EPA.
Kaua‘i County spokeswoman Mary Daubert, when contacted yesterday, did not
have sufficient time to comment.
