EAST ST. LOUIS – Petroff Trucking owners dissolved the company while defending a claim that they destroyed 15 acres of wetlands along Cahokia Canal, according to the U.S. justice department.
The department has asked District Judge David Dugan to collect a penalty from Petroff’s remaining assets of $581,821.
Penalties under the Clean Water Act could have exceeded $60 million.
Benjamim Grillot of the Justice Department sued Petroff in 2020, over its activities at 650 Madison Road in East St. Louis.
Petroff bought about 23 acres there in 2016, to carry out a contract for covering a nearby Waste Management landfill.
Grillot claimed Petroff did not obtain a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
He claimed Petroff cleared, graded and dredged wetlands for three years, causing discharges into Cahokia Canal.
“The canal was and remains a perennial stream that flows 2.8 miles downstream to the Mississippi River,” Grillot wrote.
He claimed the Environmental Protection Agency could seek civil penalties up to $55,800 per day.
Petroff counsel Thomas Maag of Wood River moved to dismiss the complaint, stating the canal wasn’t subject to the Clean Water Act.
He described it as a drainage ditch that doesn’t drain into the Mississippi.
Dugan denied the motion to dismiss last June, finding the government adequately alleged that Petroff discharged pollutants.
“The Corps of Engineers deems a water a tributary if it feeds into a traditional navigable water and possesses an ordinary high water mark,” Dugan wrote.
This January, Dugan ordered Petroff to produce tax returns, loan documents, and asset sale information.
He extended deadlines and asked for summary judgment motions by March 15.
Maag didn’t meet the deadline.
Grillot did, claiming Petroff may have saved itself $750,000 on hauling costs by using soil it obtained close to the landfill.
He claimed Petroff “destroyed one of the last remnants of the American Bottom wetlands, an important ecological resource in the region.”
“While perennial marsh wetlands were once common in this region, as a result of development they have gone from common to exceedingly rare,” he wrote.
“Petroff has filed for dissolution and is no longer a going concern.”
He claimed an expert concluded that its assets were $1,586,007.
He claimed its liabilities to third parties were $1,004,726.
“Accordingly, Petroff’s net available assets to pay a civil penalty are limited to $581,821,” he wrote.
Dugan has set bench trial June 27.