The U.S. Attorney's Office announced that ABF Freight, the asset-based division of ArcBest Corp. of Fort Smith, has agreed to pay a $535,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated requirements of the Clean Water Act.
ABF Freight in 2015 voluntarily disclosed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that it had failed to obtain industrial stormwater permit coverage at multiple facilities and had discovered additional areas of noncompliance through internal audits.
The EPA, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and the states of Maryland and Nevada later conducted 15 inspections of ABF’s facilities and observed noncompliance with stormwater laws, authorities said in a news release.
Under the proposed settlement, ABF will enhance and implement its corporate-wide stormwater compliance program at all its transportation facilities, except those located in the state of Washington.
The settlement also requires ABF to conduct tiered management oversight inspections at its facilities throughout the three-year implementation of a consent decree.
“Water quality affects every citizen equally, it’s importance simply cannot be overstated,” Clay Fowlkes, said U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, said in the release. “This agreement ensures that ABF will take significant steps towards ensuring that water quality is not negatively affected by its operations. This settlement would not have been possible without the commitment and cooperation of all the federal, state, and local agencies involved along with ABF.”
