EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series about the fines the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assessed to Denton County businesses and governments in the last year and a half. Tomorrow, we look at the commission’s effort to clean up the dry cleaning business.

They fill the air with dangerous dust, send undrinkable water into faucets and let gallons of fuel flow into soil and drainage ditches.

They get caught. They pay fines.

And sometimes, they get caught again.

Among the nearly 40 Denton County cities and businesses fined by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in the past 18 months, several were repeat offenders.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Willie Niles washes down the final clarifier at the Aubrey Sewer Treatment Plant on Wednesday. The city of Aubrey was fined by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2004 for releasing unhealthy waste water.

Orange Crush Recyclers, Riviera Mobile Home Park and a Texaco gas station on Interstate 35E have all skirted rules designed to protect infrastructure and the environment more than once, a Denton Record-Chronicle investigation found.

In addition, five cities in the county were among those cited by the state for assorted violations that affect human health and safety during the same period.

Collectively, businesses and municipalities within the county have paid about $150,000 in fines since January 2007 for violations that date back as far as 2004. Most citations followed routine record reviews by state inspectors.

But some citations followed investigations triggered by spills or complaints.

The commission enforces rules that manage waste and keep air and water clean.

Aubrey, Corinth and Ponder were all cited for failures in their sewer systems. Marshall Creek and Roanoke were cited for problems in their public water supplies.

Some rules target problems created by gas stations and dry cleaners. In Denton County, more than half of the assessed fines fell upon businesses in those two categories.

The largest fine was assessed to D&J Grocery, 631 S. Denton Drive in Lake Dallas.

The business was fined $18,190 for six different violations, including failing to maintain equipment that prevents spills and traps vapors.

The smallest fine was assessed to a Sanger man — $250 for installing an irrigation system without a license to do so. The commission requires certain professionals to take a training course and pass an exam on hydraulics and backflow prevention before they can be licensed as an irrigation installer.

Air quality

Orange Crush Recyclers agreed to pay a $16,720 fine after state inspectors determined the company did not have an air quality permit for its concrete recycler when it was in Denton County.

Keith Redmon with Orange Crush Recyclers could not be reached for comment.

The company’s recycling machines remove rebar and other metals from old concrete and grind up the rock through a series of crushers and screens, storing the material until needed.

The state requires companies that crush rock to secure a permit because the process can create dust and particulate small enough to cause lung damage.

Orange Crush was first found in violation of state laws in April 2003, when Dallas air pollution investigators visited its plant at 10801 Spangler Road. Through the spring and summer of that year, Dallas inspectors continued to press Orange Crush for compliance and finally sought an emergency shutdown order through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

In August 2005, the company moved its machinery from Dallas to 4523 FM2931 in Aubrey. The agreed order for Denton County was finalized in February 2007, but according to a report by Orange Crush to the state, the crusher was moved back to Dallas in May 2006.

In another case, the state fined United Copper Industries $1,625 after a routine inspection found the company failed to submit the required annual air quality compliance certification for its plant on Geesling Road in Denton. The company later submitted the paperwork.

“We are in compliance with our permit — there are no issues around it — but we failed to send a letter that said we were,” said Jim Page, the company’s vice president of manufacturing. “That’s the extent of it at this point. We sent them the letter and everybody’s happy.”

Water quality

Riviera Mobile Home Park has been in trouble with the state for problems with its water system. A private well serves the 26-unit park on Fish Trap Road in Denton.

In 2007, then-owner Don French agreed to pay two fines totaling $5,412 for six violations, including failure to routinely test the water for disease-causing bacteria.

The state enhanced the fines because of Riviera’s history of compliance problems. State and federal records show multiple monitoring, reporting or other violations at the property since 2001.

French, who recently sold the property, took responsibility for violations.

“The underlying problem? I’m sure it was my lack of oversight,” French said. “While I was there on a daily basis, I’m not a licensed well operator. I employed a licensed well operator, and they did not perform the duties that they needed to.”

Still, French said he believed the water was always safe to drink.

“Never has there been a bad bacteriological sample taken out there,” he said. “We’ve always been within the ranges allowed by the state.”

Also, compliance at the property has improved significantly, French said.

“Once we got the situation corrected and got the bacteriological testing going on a regular basis, and I woke up and was paying attention, we haven’t had any problems since,” he said.

However, records show the state issued a violation notice to the property in February for failing to deliver a 2006 water quality report to its residents.

French said he was unaware of the violation notice, adding that he had delivered that report last July as required.

Gas station violations

Three Denton cases involved violations at fueling stations.

Active USA, a trucking terminal at 1518 N. Interstate 35W, notified the state in May 2007 after discovering diesel fuel leaking from a ruptured line near a storm water ditch. The company did not know how long the fuel had been leaking, but it was long enough to kill nearby vegetation and pollute soil and groundwater, state records show.

The company contained the spill and agreed to an $11,250 fine.

Active USA is a division of JHT Holdings Inc. of Kenosha, Wis.

Company officials did not return phone calls.

Another case involved a Shell station at 3114 W. University Drive. The state fined station owner Millennium Gasoline Corp. of Dallas $11,100 for three violations, including failing to properly monitor, maintain and keep reports of its underground gas tanks.

The state also revoked the station’s certificate to receive fuel deliveries after representatives skipped a hearing on the case, records show.

The investigation was prompted by a report of a fuel release in May 2003.

The station now operates under different ownership.

Former owner Barkat Daredia said Millennium Gasoline Corp. no longer exists. He and the station’s current owner both said they were unaware of any violations at the site.

“I don’t even know what TCEQ is,” Daredia said.

The state also levied an $8,505 fine against another Denton gas station, a Texaco at 3809 S. Interstate 35E, for six violations found during a 2005 inspection. An investigator found several problems with the station’s underground storage tank system, including an inadequate vapor recovery system and a lack of emergency shutoff valves. Workers at the station also couldn’t provide some required safety records.

The station had been cited earlier that year for similar violations, state records show.

Six months after the state imposed the fine, a records review found the station still had not addressed all of the violations. An inspector visited last January to find the station closed and gas dispensers removed.

Reached by phone, owner A.J. Jamal said the business closed because of competition from another gas station. Before that, though, he said he had settled all outstanding issues with the state.

“We had a problem with the TCEQ and we paid a pretty hefty fine for not keeping proper records,” he said. “We actually had the records; they just weren’t on the premises.”

Jamal said the state originally threatened a $21,000 fine but lowered it after he proved his equipment was in working order.

The investigator, he said, “wanted to make an example of us.”

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@ dentonrc.com.