DEC orders halt to retail plaza work

Lack of measures to control erosion also nets $100,000 fine
By ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer at TimesUnion.com
First published: Tuesday, May 6, 2008

GREENPORT -- The company building a 500,000-square-foot retail plaza on Route 9 near Hudson must pay a $100,000 fine and temporarily stop work on the site, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said Monday.

The order stems from Widewaters Greenport Co. LLC's failure to put a storm water mitigation plan in place at the $70 million Greenport Commons project in Columbia County. The company -- a local arm of Widewaters Group Inc. of suburban Syracuse -- has been ordered to stop all work until a proper plan is in place, officials said.

The DEC said the company began work without installing proper erosion-control and sediment-control measures that the storm water pollution prevention plan had called for.

Also, Widewaters didn't have permission to work on more than five acres. The DEC said the company was working on nearly 40 acres, leaving the site vulnerable to erosion from rain.

The violation was discovered in April, but there were no actual runoff problems, according to the DEC.

"Widewaters exhibited a blatant disregard for the storm water regulations of the state and created the potential for a significant water-quality violation," said DEC Region 4 Director Gene Kelly. "Luckily, we had a long stretch of dry weather."

He said it was the largest storm water penalty in the state's history.

Marco Marzocchi, general counsel for real estate development at Widewaters, which is based in the town of DeWitt, declined to specify how the problem occurred. He said the company would not dispute the state's findings.

"It was an unfortunate set of circumstances that led up to the problems and issues on the site," he said. "There was absolutely no environmental harm or damage as a result. The issues are being addressed."

As part of the settlement, Widewaters must hire an independent inspector -- in addition to the required existing daily inspector -- to monitor the construction site at least twice a week. The inspector will submit a weekly report to the DEC.

"They've been ordered to stop all work until we approve a plan," said DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson. The company can perform additional stabilization work to remedy the erosion risk, however.

Widewaters, a real estate developer with retail, office, hospitality and industrial projects primarily on the East Coast, built the 62,000-square-foot Widewater Commons on routes 9 and 9H in Kinderhook, which houses a Hannaford market. The much-larger Greenport Commons is expected to be anchored by a Lowe's and a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Last week, though, Widewaters expressed some doubt about the future of the big-box plaza after the Columbia County Industrial Development Agency declined to provide tax benefits to the project.