Coal contractor warned

PALMER — Saying no further action was required, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has wrapped up its investigation into minor violations of environmental rules on a project to build a road to coal leases in the Chickaloon area.

Hobbs Industries Inc. of Palmer was cited under the terms of its discharge permit for releasing “settleable solids above natural conditions,” according to the notice of violation issued Dec. 10.

“The department feels that the violation occurring on 10/9/2012 has been addressed, therefore no additional documentation or corrective actions are required at this time,” the notice of violation says. “Please be mindful that future violations could have consequences.”

Those consequences include fines and even short jail sentences.

The whole thing started with an emailed complaint to DEC. The complaint alleged there were piles of straw waddle that hadn’t been deployed to stop storm water runoff from getting into local streams. Storm water was puddled on the road with oil sheens in several places and soils had been piled up along the road.

According to an inspection report accompanying the violations, Hobbs’ road to access Riversdale Alaska’s mining coal lease was visited in early October. Site contractor Chris Bullard explained the oil sheen allegation, saying that a loader had a hydraulic leak that was fixed. Less than a gallon of fluid leaked in the interim. Inspectors didn’t find any oil sheen on site.

Inspectors moved on to the drainage issues.

“Two areas were identified as in violation. Both areas were around culverts that had been recently installed,” according to the report.

Those areas caused sediment to run off into nearby water bodies.

On a follow-up visit, inspectors found the contractor and Riversdale had installed gravel berms, straw waddles, a silt fence and other things to fix the issues. Apparently that worked.

“Although (best management practices) were not deployed in the capacity that the ADEC would have liked to have seen initially, the permitees have addressed all the problems areas that were identified in the initial inspection. This conclusion was verified on November 14, 2012 during the follow up inspection conducted by ADEC. At this time, no additional action items are being requested,” the inspection report says.

The report suggests Hobbs keep doing what it’s doing, maybe deploying some more of those “best management practices” if needed.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.