{"id":74503,"date":"2019-09-27T16:48:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T22:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-company-faces-fines-for-construction-site-violations\/"},"modified":"2019-09-27T22:48:46","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T22:48:46","slug":"colorado-company-faces-fines-for-construction-site-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-company-faces-fines-for-construction-site-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado company faces fines for construction site violations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The company that rebuilt the Bayfield Parkway bridge faces fines from the state for rampant violations.<\/span>Pine River Times file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Colorado-based construction company likely faces fines for serious violations at a work site near Bayfield, according to state officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a serious offense,\u201d said Kelly Morgan, an environmental protection specialist for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. \u201cBased on the pattern and number of violations, and the history of enforcement with this company, we determined the best path forward \u2026 was enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, SEMA Construction was hired by the town of Bayfield for an estimated $4.5 million to rebuild the aging Bayfield Parkway bridge<\/a> that passes over the Los Pi\u00f1os River.<\/p>\n

According to state records, an inspection was conducted by the health department in August 2017, which found 14 violations on the work site that stemmed from SEMA not properly having stormwater containment management.<\/p>\n

More specifically, state inspectors found SEMA did not have in place proper equipment to control erosion and sediment from spilling into the Los Pi\u00f1os River and surrounding wetlands, which carries a risk to the ecosystem and aquatic life.<\/p>\n

Morgan said SEMA was given the opportunity to fix the issues but failed to do so.<\/p>\n

The state health department issued SEMA a \u201cnotice of violation\u201d in recent weeks, which includes similar rampant violations found at two other work sites in Boulder and Jefferson counties.<\/p>\n

Morgan said it\u2019s rare for the state health department to issue enforcement orders \u2013 only about 2% to 4% of inspections conducted across the state lead to an enforcement action.<\/p>\n

SEMA\u2019s past violations also were a factor, Morgan said. From 2007 to 2014, the company received four enforcement orders, resulting in $253,000 in penalties and fines.<\/p>\n

A SEMA spokeswoman was contacted late Thursday and asked for written questions via email. As of noon Friday, she had not responded.<\/p>\n

The company has until the end of September to respond to the state order. CDPHE issued SEMA a series of corrective actions, but the project in Bayfield finished in fall 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey most likely will receive a civil penalty,\u201d Morgan said.<\/p>\n

Morgan could not estimate the amount in penalties or how long it would take to resolve the issue. She said an enforcement order was issued more than two years after the initial inspection because of the complexity of the situation that involved three work sites, as well as state legislation that affected inspection protocols.<\/p>\n

Bayfield Town Manager Chris LaMay said local officials were aware of SEMA\u2019s violations at the time of construction in 2017. He said town officials are relatively pleased with the company\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything seems to be holding up,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir work seemed to meet industry standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2017, SEMA was also fined $14,075 by the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s Occupation Safety and Health Administration<\/a> for safety violations that contributed to the death of one of its workers, 23-year-old Brian John Anthony Shaw, known as B.J.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article has been updated to include the correct amount SEMA paid in fines previously. Incorrect information was given to the Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

had more than a dozen stormwater issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,1030,738],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-environment","tag-environmental-issue"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74503"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}