JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Legal Newsline) - Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced an agreement on Friday with a bank and a homeowners association to resolve allegations that they violated the state's Clean Water Law.
Since 2007, Great Southern Bank owned the wastewater treatment facility in the Clear Cove Landing Subdivision, but the bank has exercised little oversight of the facility's operation. The Clear Cove Landing Homeowners Association II continues to collect payments for operation of the WWTF.
Koster filed a lawsuit against GSB and HOA II alleging that they violated clean water regulations by allowing raw sewage and other inadequately treated wastewater to leak into Table Rock Lake, operated, used or maintained the WWTF without a proper permit, and failed to pay $7,904 worth of permit annual operating fees and penalties between 2007 and 2011.
"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 that GSB and HOA agreed to immediately fix the WWTF and come into compliance with the Clean Water Law.
The lawsuit also requests that the court assess $7,904 in unpaid operating fees and penalties against HOA II, assess a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per day for each Clean Water Law violation, and require the defendants to pay court costs and attorney fees.
Mo. bank resolves pollution allegations
