State Fines Jay Peak $100,000

[thetrailboss]

Environmental groups and the Agency of Natural Resources claim that Jay has caused massive erosion problems in the Jay Branch of the Missisquoi River. The erosion was caused by the construction of the golf course. Jay agreed to pay the fine, which will be used to clean up the river.

The article.

 

[riverc0il]

Glad Jay Peak is paying up without fighting this. My only issue is the article says 2/3 of the payment is going to cleaning up Lake Champlain. Why not put the entire sum of money back into the river where the problem is?

 

[roark]

It's all very simple: you break the law, you get fined. The problem IMHO is the fines aren't great enough to discourage the irresponsible behaviour. To put it in an economists lingo: we need to appropriately internalize all the externalities.

It's discouraging to see a business such as Jay behave in this manner, but then again that's the problem with capitalism...

 

[thetrailboss]

Glad Jay Peak is paying up without fighting this.

They've actually been fighting it since last fall....but yes they are settling it now. Kudos to Jay for that.

My only issue is the article says 2/3 of the payment is going to cleaning up Lake Champlain. Why not put the entire sum of money back into the river where the problem is?

This makes no sense, except that the Jay Branch flows into the river that leads to Champlain...eventually. I also would have preferred that they fix the erosion/sediment closer to the source.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I wonder since Jay is owned by a Canadian company I wonder if that played into it at all. Clean air and clean water is Vermont's greatest product, gotta protect it.

 

[kbroderick]

There's a more detailed article in today's freeps:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070511/NEWS01/705110316/1009&theme=

 

[Greg]

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