FORT SMITH, Ark. — National freight carrier ABF Freight System Inc. (ABF) has resolved allegations that it violated requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) relating to stormwater at locations across the United States, according to a release from Arkansas' U.S. Attorney's Office.
ABF, which operates more than 200 transportation facilities in 47 states and Puerto Rico, will pay a civil penalty of $535,000 as part of the settlement. Part of the penalty will be directed to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Maryland and Nevada, who joined the settlement.
In addition to the penalty, ABF says it will enhance and implement its comprehensive, corporate-wide stormwater compliance program at all its transportation facilities except those located in Washington.
The program includes a memorialization of stormwater roles and responsibilities, comprehensive employee training with contractor awareness, implementation of standard operating procedures and tracking facility-specific corrective actions.
In April 2015, ABF voluntarily disclosed to EPA that it failed to obtain industrial stormwater permit coverage at multiple facilities and had discovered additional areas of noncompliance with the CWA through the company’s own compliance audits which were conducted at nearly all its facilities during 2013 and 2014.
The complaint in the case alleges that ABF failed to comply with certain conditions of their CWA permits at nine of its transportation facilities. Some of those alleged CWA permit conditions were:
- spills that had not been cleaned up
- failure to implement required spill prevention measures
- failure to implement measures to minimize contamination of stormwater runoff
- failure to conduct monitoring of stormwater discharges as required
- failure to provide all required training to ABF’s employees
“Water quality affects every citizen equally, it’s importance simply cannot be overstated,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Fowlkes for the Western District of Arkansas.
“Companies must comply with Clean Water Act provisions to prevent waterways from being contaminated by industrial pollutants,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This consent decree ensures that measures will be implemented at hundreds of transportation facilities across the nation to protect nearby waterways and the communities that live along them.”
The settlement also requires ABF to conduct tiered management oversight inspections at its permitted and NEC facilities throughout the three-year implementation of this consent decree.
Lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, the consent decree is subject to a 30-day federal public comment period and approval by the federal court. The consent decree can be viewed here.