Agency accused of confiscating property and keeping it

By Bob Unruh August 7, 2021 

The Environmental Protection Agency has been sued for taking over property adjacent to the 2015 Gold King Mine catastrophe in Colorado to stage cleanup equipment and projects, and keeping it, never paying for it or even for renting it.  The case seeks millions of dollars in damages and has been submitted to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims by the New Civil Liberties Alliance on behalf of landowner Todd Hennis............

In response to the disaster, Ennis gave verbal permission for the EPA to temporarily use a part of his property, adjacent to mine, "for an emergency staging area for equipment and supplies."  But, "rather than thank Mr. Hennis for his quick cooperation and compensate him for the use of his land, EPA took advantage of him. Without so much as a phone call or email to Mr. Hennis, EPA constructed a $2.3 million dollar water treatment facility on a concrete slab on Hennis’s property. Worse yet, EPA has repeatedly refused—across three presidential administrations—to pay him anything for the privilege," the legal team explained..........

"Adding insult to injury, the government has threatened Mr. Hennis with soul-crushing civil penalties should he attempt to exercise his constitutional rights to exclude EPA from his property. When Mr. Hennis refused to sign an eight-year 'Consent for Access to Property' that would have paid him nothing, EPA issued a civil enforcement action against him. The agency has threatened that he will be subject to penalties of up to $59,017 per day for any period of time during which EPA believes he is not complying with its demands," the NCLA explained...........To Read More...