DEP Issues $20,750 Penalty Against Carbon County Property Owner For Waste Violations

The Department of Environmental Protection Friday announced it issued a $20,750 civil penalty against James Umbriac of Banks Township, Carbon County for illegally disposing, storing, and burning solid waste on his property along Centtown Road. 
            The penalty comes after Umbriac did not comply with a 2015 department order to remove the waste from his property. 
            “This penalty is the result of what happens when property owners repeatedly fail to abide by a DEP order to clean up debris that should not have been on that property in the first place,” said Mike Bedrin, Director of DEP’s Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre.  
            In early 2015, after receiving numerous complaints, DEP conducted an inspection of the property and found violations of the Solid Waste Management Act and determined that old tires, garbage and construction and demolition debris were being brought onto the property. 
            Some of that debris was either being burned in open pits or buried on the property. 
            In April 2015, DEP ordered James Umbriac, as the owner of the property, to have the debris cleaned up, including the waste buried on the property, within 45 days and provide documentation of that clean-up.  
            Umbriac failed to comply and in August of 2016, the Carbon County Court of Common Pleas, at the department’s request, issued a court order for clean-up of the property. 
            The debris was removed and the property returned to compliance in October 2016, with full documentation of the clean-up and proper disposal of the debris provided to DEP in May 2017. 
            The civil penalty will be paid into the Solid Waste Abatement Fund which is administered by DEP for the elimination of solid waste that presents a danger or hazard to the public or environment.