Clean Water Act
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Independence, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today for violating the Clean Water Act by filling in a wetlands area near Shoal Creek at the River Bend Development site.
David Obermeyer, 60, of Independence, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo.
Today’s indictment alleges that Obermeyer operated earth-moving equipment and authorized and/or directed the placement of fill materials into wetlands adjacent to Shoal Creek and adjacent to the Missouri River in Jackson County, Mo., from Sept. 29, 2011, through Sept. 30, 2014.
According to the indictment, Obermeyer is developing the property but is not the property owner. Approximately 6.6 acres of wetlands east of the levee was filled without authorization. Obermeyer had not applied for, and had not been issued, a permit for this activity.
On July 3, 2013, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a violation notice and cease and desist order to Obermeyer. The order stated the grading, excavation, and placement of fill material in wetlands east (riverward) of the existing levee was done without authorization and might be referred to EPA for civil or criminal enforcement action. The letter further stated Obermeyer and others involved were “hereby directed to cease and desist all unauthorized work in Corps jurisdiction."
A federal agent, while hand-delivering the cease and desist notice to Obermeyer, observed trucks dumping fill material at the site. Obermeyer denied the trucks were dumping material east of the levee. On March 10, 2014, EPA Criminal Investigation Divison special agents conducted surveillance at the site, the indictment says, and saw trucks entering the site with loads of dirt and debris and exiting after emptying the loads. They allegedly saw trucks dumping material and a Bobcat pushing the piles of material over the edge of the fill area. The activities allegedly occurred on the east side of the levee in the wetlands area.
During the morning of March 11, 2014, an EPA-CID special agent conducted surveillance at the site and, in less than four hours, allegedly observed trucks bringing debris into the site 23 times. On June 5, 2014, the EPA issued an administrative compliance order to Obermeyer requiring him to immediately cease placing fill material into the wetlands and submit a work plan addressing the removal of the fill.
According to the indictment, investigators observed dumping continuing at the site in August and September 2014. On one day in September 2014, for example, 15 trucks allegedly dumped material at the site. According to the indictment, Google Earth aerial photographs of the site corroborate the violations documented by investigators. The pictures, say the indictment, show the expansion of unauthorized fill activities in the wetland area east of the levee over time.
Dickinson cautioned that the charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown. It was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division and the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
