Developer ignores regulations

DEP may prosecute for earth disturbance

By TOM KANE

LORDS VALLEY, PA - Dominic Bradlee, president of Gateway Development, has been ordered to cease any further earth-moving activity at the site of a commercial development project at the intersection of Route 739 and Log Tavern Road.

The Pike County Commissioners announced at their meeting on July 9 that a cease-and-desist order was sent to Bradlee by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on June 24.

“It was not the first time Bradlee has been guilty of infractions like this,” said commissioner Harry Forbes.

In a letter, Peter A. Mongak, an environmental protection compliance specialist with the DEP Watershed Management Program, said, in part, “As you are aware, on April 28, 2008, the department issued a Compliance Order requiring, among other things, that all earth disturbance activities shall immediately cease at the site, until the department gives written authorization for such activity to continue.”

Specifically, Bradlee had ignored the requirements of the federal National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), which concerns the discharge of stormwater from earth-disturbance activities.

Mongak wrote that, “These violations demonstrate a high degree of willingness on your part since they occurred after written notice. Your actions constitute unlawful conduct under Section 611 of the Pennsylvania Clean Stream Law and subject you to potential civil and criminal penalty.”

Earth disturbance activities include any activity that disturbs the surface of the land, including, but not limited to, clearing, timber-harvesting activities, road-maintenance activities and the moving, depositing, stockpiling, or storing of soil, rock or earth material.

“We’ll have to wait and see whether DEP will bring criminal charges against Brad-lee or just civil charges,” Forbes said.