Attorney General Koster obtains agreement with Great Southern Bank and Stone County homeowners association for clean-water violations –bank agrees to immediately fix possible leak of raw sewage leaking into Table Rock Lake–

Jefferson City, MO – February 8, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — Attorney General Chris Koster has reached an agreement in a lawsuit in Stone County against Great Southern Bank and Clear Cove Landing Homeowners Association II (HOA II). The agreement, which the Attorney General filed in court along with the lawsuit, orders the bank and the homeowners association to stop raw sewage from leaking into Table Rock Lake in violation of Missouri’s Clean Water Law.

Koster said Great Southern Bank has owned the subdivision’s wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) since 2007, but has exercised little oversight of the facility’s operation. The bank also owns approximately 20 lots in the Clear Cove Landing Subdivision, which is about one-third of the lots in the subdivision. The homeowners’ association continues to collect payments for operation of the WWTF.

Department of Natural Resources inspectors found that the Bank and HOA II violated clean water regulations by:

• causing or permitting the discharge of water contaminants – raw sewage bypassing the treatment system and other inadequately treated wastewater – in a location where reasonably certain to cause pollution to waters of the state;
• operating, using, or maintaining the WWTF without a Missouri State Operating Permit; and,
• failing to pay the Permit annual operating fee for the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, currently owing $7,904 in unpaid annual operating fees and late penalties.

“Missourians have a right to expect that wastewater systems operate in compliance with the law so as to keep pollution out of our state’s irreplaceable natural resources, like Table Rock Lake,” Koster said.  “Our office will continue to pursue all actions to protect the waters of Missouri.”

Koster said the bank and homeowners’ association have agreed to immediately fix the WWTF and to come into compliance with the Clean Water Law. The lawsuit, filed in conjunction with the preliminary injunction the defendants agreed to, also asks the court to assess a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per day for each violation of the Clean Water Law; to assess against HOA II $7,904 in unpaid operating fees and late penalties, and to require the defendants to pay attorney fees and court costs.