Salt Lake City, USA - A West Texas ranch owned by a Utah-based fundamentalist religious group that practices plural marriage has been fined more than $34,000 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which reported violations related to construction.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the commission has filed two separate enforcement actions against YFZ Land LLC, the holding company that owns the 1,691-acre ranch near Eldorado.
The ranch was purchased in 2003 by David Allred, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church is led by Warren Jeffs, who has not been seen publicly for more than a year since Arizona authorities indicted him in a case involving arranged plural marriages between underage girls and older men.
Neither Allred nor Jeffs responded to a written request for comment on the fines, which was sent by fax to the YFZ Ranch on Thursday.
At least one set of the environmental violations appears to be resolved. Commission documents show that YFZ has agreed to pay the state $20,373 for violations that occurred between May 2004 and April 2005, commission spokesman Terry Clawson said. Ranch operators corrected or discontinued the offending practices, documents show.
The violations included failing to get permits or approved plans for a sewage system, an injection well, a concrete plant, waste dumping, disposal of used oil and bulk mineral storage.
An administrative judge must approve the agreement and a hearing is set for May 10, Clawson said.
A second set of problems, which include improperly burned solid wastes, unauthorized wastewater discharges and the improper composting of building materials, has not been addressed, Clawson said.
Commission documents show that YFZ could be fined $14,140 as well as $10,000 daily if the problems are not corrected.