Ivory Home, Ltd. Settlement

(Denver, Colo. – June 24, 2014) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that Ivory Homes, Ltd. has agreed to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations at several locations in Utah and will invest in a company-wide compliance program to improve employee training and stormwater management at all current and future residential construction sites. Ivory Homes will also pay a Clean Water Act penalty of $250,000. The settlement will help prevent hundreds of thousands of pounds of sediment from entering Utah’s waterways as a result of construction activities.

Overview
Violations
Injunctive Relief
Pollutant Reductions
Health and Environmental Effects
Civil Penalty
Comment Period
Contacts

Overview of Company

Ivory Homes is a land developer and homebuilder that builds within Utah. It is based in Salt Lake City and is one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, ranking near the top 50, as well as the largest homebuilder in Utah. Ivory Homes has built over 10,000 new homes, ranging from townhomes to single-family residences to vacation and luxury homes.

Violations

The alleged violations were identified by EPA during inspections at five Ivory Homes construction sites located in Lehi, Lindon and Draper, Utah. At these sites, Ivory Homes failed to comply with the requirements of its Storm Water General Permit for Construction Activities. Violations included the failure to install and maintain adequate stormwater control measures and conduct adequate inspections. Deficient stormwater control measures included missing or ineffective storm drain inlet protection, improper concrete washout, damaged and improperly installed silt fence, lack of vehicle track out controls, inadequately managed dirt stockpiles, and the lack of stormwater controls on steep slopes and other large disturbed areas.

Injunctive Relief

The Consent Decree requires Ivory Homes to implement a program that will ensure adequate management oversight of construction sites and compliance with the Utah Storm Water General Permit for Construction Activities. The compliance program will also include employee training and additional inspections beyond the routine inspections required by the Permit. The Consent Decree requires Ivory Homes to:

Designate a company stormwater compliance manager who will have overall responsibility for the Ivory Homes stormwater compliance program.
Designate a trained stormwater compliance manager for every construction site who will be responsible for stormwater compliance at that site.
Hold monthly stormwater management meetings for all stormwater compliance managers.
Develop stormwater pollution prevention plans for each site that comply with the requirements in the NDPES permit and the Consent Decree.
Conduct a pre-construction inspection and review prior to commencing construction at every site.
Record all site inspections on a standardized form approved by EPA that requires Ivory Homes to document completion of all corrective actions taken to achieve or maintain compliance at a site.
Conduct quarterly management oversight inspections of every site by the company stormwater compliance manager.
Implement a stormwater compliance training program for all stormwater compliance managers and other employees who supervise construction activities.
Submit bi-annual compliance reports to EPA and to Ivory Homes’ corporate officers.

Pollutant Reductions

As a result of this settlement, EPA estimates that the amount of sediment discharged in stormwater runoff from Ivory Homes construction sites statewide will be reduced by over 840,000 pounds annually.

Health and Environmental Effects

Discharges of stormwater runoff, including runoff from construction sites, can have a significant impact on water quality, affecting drinking water, reducing usability, and damaging valuable aquatic habitats. As stormwater flows over a construction site, it can pick up pollutants like sediment, debris, and chemicals and transport these to a nearby storm sewer system or directly to a river, lake, or coastal water. Polluted, sediment-laden stormwater runoff can harm or kill fish and other wildlife, and can destroy aquatic habitat. Increased runoff rates due to removal of vegetation, soil compaction and construction of roads and other impervious surfaces can cause stream bank erosion.

Civil Penalty

As part of the settlement, Ivory Homes has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $250,000.

Comment Period

The Consent Decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court of Utah, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court. Information on submitting comments is available at the Department of Justice website.

For more information, contacts

Lourdes Bufill
Office of Civil Enforcement, US EPA
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Mail Code 2243A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-5128
[email protected]

Susan Bruce
Office of Civil Enforcement, US EPA
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Mail Code 2243A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-8329
[email protected]