EPA, state add $135K to fines on Pflueger
The landowner's lawyer says his client's compliance is stymied
LIHUE, Kauai » The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Health Department will seek an additional $135,000 from Kauai landowner James Pflueger for not starting remediation work on his Pilaa property.
Just last week, Pflueger was saddled with a $23,500 fine from the EPA for not meeting deadlines in relation to replacing cesspools on his property near Kilauea.
But Pflueger's lawyer, Wesley Ching, said county, state and federal governments are putting his client in a "nightmarish Catch-22," expecting him to meet deadlines but not allowing him to do so.
Ching said in a news release that Pflueger wants to do the work, but a grading permit submitted to the county Department of Public Works 10 months ago has yet to be approved.
Pflueger's original environmental settlement, of $2 million in fines and $5.3 million in remediation work, was caused by unpermitted grading work on his 378-acre parcel at Pilaa.
"If the EPA and the DOH would expend an iota of effort in addressing the environmental issues at the heart of this case, real environmental benefit would be achieved," Ching said.
The EPA, however, maintains that Pflueger has to meet the deadlines to ensure the protection of the reef at Pilaa, which was inundated with mud after a landslide in 2001. The slide was caused by the unpermitted work on Pflueger's property.