The Alaska Department of Transportation polluted a state wetlands refuge while performing highway maintenance work in 2021, a violation of the Clean Water Act, according to an EPA complaint.
The department discharged soil, debris, gravel, rock and sediment at nine locations within and next to the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge in Juneau, EPA said in the complaint. The activities “very likely” harmed several tributaries of the Gastineau Channel that provide important habitats for endangered salmon, EPA continued.
The federal agency is proposing fines of up to $333,500 for the activities, which the state department allegedly conducted without approval by the Army Corps of Engineers.
State officials expressed frustration with EPA’s complaint, which they said pertains to efforts to clear a ditch alongside the Egan Expressway after severe rainstorms in 2020. The maintenance work was also conducted in an area that should not fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act following a sweeping Supreme Court ruling last year, Sackett v. EPA, officials said.
