To settle alleged violations of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act an Arizona developer and contractor have agreed to pay a combined $1.25 million civil penalty for bulldozing, filling and diverting approximately five miles of the Santa Cruz River without a permit from the Corps of Engineers. According to an EPA press release the settlement is one of the largest Section 404 settlements in EPA's history.

In 2005, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency filed a complaint against Scottsdale-developer George H. Johnson, his companies Johnson International, Inc. and General Hunt Properties, Inc. and land-clearing contractor, 3-F Contracting, Inc., for violating Section 404 of the CWA that protects against the unauthorized filling of federally protected waterways.

The alleged violations occurred in 2003 and early 2004. At that time defendants bulldozed 2000 acres of the historic King Ranch and La Osa Ranch in Pinal County, areas located within the largest active floodplain of the lower Santa Cruz River.

The EPA press release stated that this stretch of the Santa Cruz River supported a rich variety of vegetation prior to the defendants?s land-clearing activities. It included one of the few extensive mesquite forests remaining in Arizona's Sonoran Desert region. These areas form a critical corridor for wildlife to move along the Santa Cruz River and from Picacho Peak State Park to the Ironwood Forest National Monument.

The 2,000 acres were cleared as part of an extensive 18,000-acre development.