Home Builder to Pay Fine for Water Violation at Site

REVIEW-JOURNAL

KB Home Nevada will pay an $80,000 penalty in a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency for violating the Clean Water Act at a 160-acre development site in southwest Las Vegas.

A statement Tuesday from the EPA’s San Francisco regional office, which oversees Nevada, said the fine stems from clearing land at the site, west of Fort Apache Road, without a required permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The work caused the discharge of dredged and fill material into tributaries of Las Vegas Wash, the EPA’s statement said.

When the EPA ordered a halt to the work in September, the company agreed to spend $193,000 on three environmental restoration projects as compensation for the violations.

The projects included wetlands restoration in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and fencing Calico and Ash springs.

The statement quoted EPA regional Water Division Director Alexis Strauss: “It’s vital that anyone engaged in this scale of construction activity take basic steps to minimize impacts to desert washes, to maintain water quality, flood flow capacity and wildlife habitat.”