Marathon County Shoe Supply Company and Officer Settle with State for Violating Wastewater Management Laws

MADISON — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today that General Shoe Supplies Limited (General Shoe) of Stratford has agreed to pay penalties, costs and attorney fees totaling $122,500 for its unlawful discharge of wastewater containing excessive pollutants, including zinc and phosphate, through floor drains to the municipal sewers leading to the Stratford Publicly Owned Treatment Works.  The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducted an investigation and referred the matter to the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution.  The discharges began on, or before, January 15, 2007, and continued until March 2, 2009.  General Shoe also failed to file semi-annual reports to the DNR concerning these discharges and did not submit the required final compliance report to the DNR until November 28, 2011.

Thomas E. Griffith, the vice president and operator of General Shoe, has agreed to pay penalties totaling $2,500.00 for failing to submit a baseline monitoring report providing detailed information about the nature of General Shoe's pollutants and the methods it would use to pre-treat its wastewater to comply with the law, until October 28, 2011.

General Shoe and Mr. Griffith cooperated with the DNR and the DOJ and brought the facility into compliance.  General Shoe did this by recycling a waste-stream and adding pretreatment control equipment to treat another waste-stream. 

Assistant Attorney General Mary Batt prosecuted the lawsuit for the State.

A copy of each judgment and the stipulation and order for judgment are available at the following links: