After paying off nearly $2 million worth of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fines, Athens City Council is breathing a sigh of relief. However, the sigh isn’t coming from an increase in budgetary breathing room, but rather an end to more than three decades worth of fine payments.
At last night’s Council meeting, Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht announced the city has finally paid off its 31-year-old debt resulting from fines and subsequent charges from alleged water contamination.
The fines stem from a complaint originally issued by the EPA in 1980.
The four-count complaint consisted of a failure to notify the EPA about the handling of hazardous waste, failure to submit an application for such a facility, failure to perform appropriate duties associated with the waste operations and failure to properly test waste for land disposal restrictions.
After several added violation fines as well as “good faith effort” mitigations, the resulting penalty was $111,937.
As years passed, lawyer expenses, further litigation and hydrology analysis to prove the city did not contaminate the water resulted in additional costs totaling $1.8 million, said Mayor Paul Wiehl.
“The history behind the story goes back and forth,” he said.
In 2002, Councilwoman Nancy Bain helped create a catalyst payment strategy to help pay off the debt.
“She added a $1 fee to anyone who pays a utility bill that would go toward paying off the debt,” Hecht said.
Hecht requested Council appropriate $60,000 to pay the final installment.
“The entire situation definitely heightened (environmental) awareness here in Athens,” Wiehl said.
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