Nebraska Livestock Waste Engineering Firm to Pay Fine Over Facility Design
Posted on: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 15:00 CDT
Jul. 19--One of Nebraska's largest livestock waste engineering firms has agreed to a $6,000 to $8,000 fine over allegations that state environmental regulators were misled about the design of a Phelps County livestock facility.
Settje Agri-Services, a Lancaster County engineering firm, will be allowed to pay the lesser amount if it doesn't violate state laws and regulations for 18 months, according to an agreement between the company and the Nebraska Attorney General's Office.
In the settlement, the company said it wasn't admitting wrongdoing.
According to the state, the firm's president, Dean Settje, and engineer Dale Leffers certified on March 18, 2003, that the Paul Johnson & Sons feedlot had been built according to the specifications in its state permit.
However, the state said, the facility did not have the culverts and settling basins needed to carry waste to the holding ponds.
Dean Settje said the company didn't intend to mislead regulators.
"A mistake was made on our part, I'm not denying that," he said. "But it was an honest mistake."
The firm had intended to certify that only the ponds were finished, he said, while recognizing that the rest of the work remained to be done. He said a five-minute re-do of the company's cover letter to state regulators would have corrected the problem
State inspectors visit sites after they have been certified, he said, so any discrepancy is immediately obvious. "You can't get by with something, the process doesn't allow it and we wouldn't do it even if it did," he said.
The company has worked on about 450 projects across Nebraska.
The cattle company separately has agreed to a penalty over the certification issue and for other allegations.
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Source: Omaha World-Herald
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