Van Hollen
MADISON, Wis. (Legal Newsline) - Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced a settlement on Friday with Triple P Inc., doing business as Peters Concrete Company, and its owner for allegedly violating wetland and stream protection laws.
Under the terms of the settlement with the Green Bay-based Peters Concrete and James O. Peters, Sr., the company's owner, the defendants must pay $300,000, agree to restore or mitigate past violations at 16 quarries and agree to pay stipulated forfeitures if the company commits significant environmental law violations in the next three years. A separate settlement was reached with the city of Gillett for a monetary judgment of $10,000.
The city of Gillett chose Peters Concrete to build a bridge over Christie Brook, a trout-stocked tributary to the Oconto River. The Department of Natural Resources alleged that Peters Concrete used undersized water protection measures, failed to install and maintain adequate protection measures and discharged sediment to wetlands instead of uplands. The DNR alleged that the city of Gillett failed to make sure that water protection measures were installed, replaced and repaired and failed to report its noncompliance.
The lawsuit filed against the defendants alleged that waterway and wetland issues connected with the Christie Book project worsened when a backhoe from Peters Concrete became stuck in the bed of the creek in June 2009.
Peters and Peters Concrete allegedly also violated storm water management and wetland protection laws at a portable concrete and gravel pit mixing plant in Little River, Oconto County, at the Caelwaerts site.
The DNR alleges that after it directed Peters to stay out of the wetlands until delineation was complete, Peters Concrete dumped several loads of concrete block in the area, disturbing approximately 1.4 acres of wetlands.
The company announced that James O. Peters, Sr. will retire from and will not act as a director, employee or officer of Triple P Inc. in the future.