LC/DBM provides landscape contractors with Educational, Imaginative and Practical information about their business, their employees, their machines and their projects.
Lawn Service Firm Fined $160,000 for STREAM POLLUTION The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protec-
tion has fined EG Systems of Marysville, Ohio, $160,000 in connection with an employee's deliberate disposal of an herbicide-pesticide-fertilizer mixture into a small Allegheny County stream. EG Systems does business in the Pittsburgh area as Scotts Lawn Service. According to the DEP, in June 2010 investigators discovered
an EG Systems employee at the Scotts Lawn Service location in Monroeville, Pennsylvania had built a siphon system connect- ing an 8,000-gallon holding tank to a gutter downspout drain. The drain empties directly into a storm sewer, which discharges into an unnamed tributary that flows into Thompson Run. The next day, the employee used the siphon to discharge
between 800 and 1,000 gallons of the mixture into the drain. Neighbors complained about the odor and contacted local police and fire officials. This time, officials found the source and contacted DEP, which notified EG Systems. The company promptly hired an environmental remediation contractor to handle the cleanup. DEP's investigation uncovered the employee's arrangement
and resulted in eight violations of the state's Solid Waste Man- agement Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law. The agency and the company entered into a Consent Assessment of Civil Penalty. The $160,000 penalty DEP collected goes into the Clean Water Fund, which is used to address pollution issues.
Information Request # 593
Information Request # 503
Information Request # 483 March 2012 41