EPA and DOJ file complaint against Bruneau, Idaho, ranch alleging significant violations that threaten fisheries, wetlands and wildlife areas | US EPA

February 27, 2024

WASHINGTON – Today, Feb. 27, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against Ace Black Ranches LLP of Bruneau, Idaho, alleging significant violations of the Clean Water Act affecting the Bruneau River in Idaho.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, alleges that Ace Black Ranches illegally discharged fill material to the Bruneau River and adjacent wetlands, significantly threatening fisheries, neighboring properties and downstream communities. The illegal activities include mining and processing gravel extracted from the river and using heavy equipment to clear and level dozens of acres of wetlands – all without permits required by the Clean Water Act.

“The complaint in this case alleges that Ace Blank Ranches treated the Bruneau River and state-owned wetlands along the river as private property that could be damaged or destroyed for sand and gravel mining, without any effort to comply with the requirements of the Clean Water Act that protects our Nation’s waters from such abuses,” said Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA will hold companies accountable when they seek to profit from conducting illegal activities in American rivers and streams, destroying adjacent wetlands that protect those waters from pollution, and threatening fisheries, neighboring properties, and downstream communities.”

“Wetlands play critical roles in our ecosystems and serve as buffers to climate change,” said Casey Sixkiller, Regional Administrator of EPA’s Region 10 office in Seattle. “Enforcement actions like this are clear reminders that EPA and its federal and state partners will enforce the law to protect increasingly valuable and fragile water resources that we all hold in common and rely upon.”

During inspections of the property, review of historical aerial imagery and through other available information, representatives from EPA observed and documented sand and gravel mining, processing and hauling equipment located on the site; heavy machinery tracks and evidence of mechanical scraping, pushing or pulling, in and next to the Bruneau River and adjacent wetlands; and large piles of sand and gravel near the Bruneau River, along its banks and in adjacent wetlands. EPA representatives also collected evidence of wetland clearing, grading and filling to install and operate center-pivot irrigation systems at the property, construction of roads in the Bruneau River and adjacent wetlands, and placing fill material in the river and along its banks.

The complaint alleges that all these activities were unauthorized and caused significant damage to fish and wildlife habitat in and adjacent to the Bruneau River, including at land owned by the state of Idaho within the C.J. Strike Wildlife Management Area, which provides hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing opportunities.

EPA first learned of the alleged violations via a complaint from a member of the public to the state of Idaho regarding roads built across the Bruneau River.

The Bruneau River and its adjacent wetlands are considered “waters of the United States” and are subject to protection under the Clean Water Act. Activities that discharge pollutants to rivers and the adjacent wetlands require Clean Water Act permits.