Gulfstream Park Racing Association, Inc. Clean Water Act Settlement
Overview
Gulfstream Park Racing Association, Inc. is a privately owned corporation that includes a year-round thoroughbred racing venue on approximately 243 acres located in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The venue includes a large concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) that stables or confines and feeds or maintains a maximum of 1,100 horses year-round, consisting of horse stables, concrete horse wash pads, covered manure/bedding dumpsters and a 5,800 square-foot manure storage/transfer building.
Violations
Gulfstream allegedly violated Section 301 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging process wastewater in violation of its permit that ultimately flowed to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, a navigable-in-fact water of the United States. Gulfstream also allegedly had numerous National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit violations for failure to maintain documents and records that must be available for inspection.
EPA entered into a Stipulation of Settlement with Gulfstream in April 2017, and entered into an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) in January 2017, to remedy these violations.
Injunctive Relief
EPA entered into an AOC with Gulfstream that orders Gulfstream to take measures to eliminate their unauthorized discharges. These measures include installing horse wash pads to capture horse wash wastewater and connecting those horse wash pads to the City of Hollywood, Florida’s publicly owned treatment works (POTW). Gulfstream is currently implementing these actions and is expected to complete these actions by December 31, 2017.
Pollutant Reduction
EPA believes that certain pollution reduction will be achieved as a direct result of EPA’s enforcement in the matter, specifically as a result of the AOC. The estimated pollutant reduction for one year is a combined total of over 400,000 pounds of combined biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus
Health and Environmental Effects
The corrective measures that Gulfstream will implement will reduce the amount of pollutants entering waters of the U.S., including the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
Civil Penalty
Pursuant to the Stipulation of Settlement, Gulfstream paid a civil penalty of $456,500.
For More Information, Contact:
Kristin Buterbaugh, Attorney-Adviser
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Mail Code 2243A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-4479
buterbaugh.kristin@epa.gov
Suzanne Armor, Attorney-Adviser
Office of Regional Counsel
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4
61 Forsyth Street, S.W.
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 562-9701
armor.suzanne@epa.gov