DEVELOPER TO SETTLE BUILDING RUNOFF SUIT.

Byline: Daily News

SAUGUS - The developer building hundreds of homes in Plum Canyon will pay nearly $125,000 to settle a case filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has charged that the company violated clean water standards by failing to control runoff during construction.

The Shapell Monteverde Partnership was ordered to pay the sum within 30 days to resolve a June 2002 citation for violation of the federal Clean Water Act, EPA officials said.

On two occasions last spring, EPA inspectors visited two properties Shapell was developing on Plum Canyon Road just outside Santa Clarita city limits. They found no erosion or sediment control, which meant dust, debris and possibly chemicals from the construction site could wash into Bouquet Creek, which feeds the Santa Clara River. The river flows into the Pacific.

``Storm-water controls are vital to prevent contaminants from polluting our waterways,'' said Alexis Strauss, director of the water division in the EPA's Pacific Southwest regional office. ``Runoff is one of the biggest causes of water pollution in the Los Angeles area.''

In 2002 and 2003, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board also inspected these sites twice and noted the same erosion and sediment control problems. That agency issued Shapell four violation notices.