Who will be the benificiary of that payment? Will the affected individuals be on the receiving end or will the govt. suck it down their deficit rathole?
COLUMBIA -- Norfolk Southern Railway Co. must make a series of environmental improvements to the Graniteville area and pay a $4 million penalty, according to a consent decree released today by the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina Aiken Division.
Read The Agreement
Five years ago nine people were killed and more than 250 were sent to the hospital when a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying chlorine crashed into two locomotives and two rail cars. The company settled a class-action lawsuit with 5,400 residents and settled with victims harmed by the chlorine release.
The EPA filed its complaint in April of 2008, alleging the company had violated sections of the Clean Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act.
The company must pay $4 million in civil penalties, with $3,967,500 going into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, and $32,500, for the Hazardous Substance Superfund.
The company must also plant native vegetation on Horse Creek's banks to prevent erosion and siltation, at an estimated cost of $100,000.
These may be trees, shrubs, and grasses, such as white oak, black gum, buttonbush and swamp dogwood, according to the court. They must be planted along Horse Creek at the Avondale Mills property and the upstream side of the Chalk Bed Road bridge.
The EPA will inspect the work at the end of February 2011, and then again in September of next year.
The court's decree also requires Norfolk Southern to stock Langley Pond with 3,000 fish.
The fish must include at least 600 each of of channel catfish, bluegill, redear or warmouth sunfish, largemouth bass and black crappie. The fish shall be added in at least three separate stocking sessions, with each one separated by at least two months, with the EPA allowed to look on.
The EPA's decree will make it difficult for passersby to mistake Norfolk Southern's environmental projects as public-minded volunteer work.
"Any public statement, oral or written, in print, film, or other media, made by (the company) making reference to the (project) under this decree shall include the following language: 'This project was undertaken in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action, United States v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company, taken on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA),'" reads the court's degree.
Comments
Who will be the benificiary of that payment? Will the affected individuals be on the receiving end or will the govt. suck it down their deficit rathole?
You can be assured that the government will "suck it down their deficit rathole". Same with the money being paid back into the TARP fund account from the banks and AIG. These monies will become a slush fund for the president and Administration to dole out to their buddies. This is prbably how the "cash for votes" will be paid.
How about the word "probably"...Sorry.
Walrus, the answer to your question lies in the fourth paragraph. "The company must pay $4 million in civil penalties, with $3,967,500 going into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, and $32,500, for the Hazardous Substance Superfund." Google "Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund" for details on the program.
I thought there had already been a settlement to the affected individuals see the following link this is the government getting more.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/08/18/met_446029.shtml.
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