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A development company owned by former Congressman Mark Neumann and two contracting firms have reached a settlement with the state in a lawsuit over mudslides that cascaded into the Oconomowoc River, a cemetery and parkland adjacent to a subdivision under construction after heavy rains in August 2004.
Neumann Enterprises Inc., D.F. Tomasini Contractors Inc. and New Berlin Grading Inc. have agreed to pay penalties and costs totaling $120,000 for runoff from the 67-acre Thurow's Golden View Estates in Oconomowoc after a 3.4-inch downpour on Aug. 3, 2004.
The fines are in addition to more than $400,000 spent by the firms to remediate the damaged areas and remove sediment that had washed into wetlands and La Belle Cemetery.
"The kind of sedimentation that occurred here as the result of these violations can destroy important features of wetlands and lakes," Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said in a news release issued by her office Thursday.
All three defendants said in...