Chapter 89 Environmental Protection Agency Fines and Verbal Warnings

The PJM matter had temporarily come to an end, but Mu Xin hadn't even rested for two days before something went wrong at the construction site.

On the day it happened, Mu Xin was on the third floor of the Morris Building, reviewing the preliminary design drawings for the substation sent by Dan Miller.

The PJM approval hadn't come down yet, but the verbal commitment from Paul Hamilton was as good as set in stone.

With a sixty-day approval cycle, half of the heavy burden in Mu Xin's heart had finally been lifted.

The other half was still hanging—not because of PJM, but because of the time.

From receiving the approval to completing construction, there were less than five months.

Dan said it was an impossible task, but Mu Xin said he didn't care; money wasn't the issue, time was.

Dan was silent for a long time, then said, "Let me calculate it again," and hung up the phone.

When Victoria pushed the door open and entered, her expression was off; she usually didn't walk in with such a serious face at three in the afternoon.

"Some people came to the construction site," she said. "From the Environmental Protection Agency."

Mu Xin paused for a moment. "Which level? Federal or state?"

"Ohio EPA. They brought body cameras, wandered around the site for over an hour, took photos, and collected water samples."

Victoria paused. "Robert called me and said they issued a fine on the spot."

Mu Xin leaned back in his chair and ran through everything in his mind: ODNR was settled, the approvals for the two counties were settled, the State Public Utilities Commission was settled, and PJM was settled.

He had already greased the wheels with every government department that could potentially block him.

It wasn't bribery; it was legal, compliant, and built on relationships that had cost tens of millions of dollars.

Every cent was spent above board, and every connection was firmly established. How had the Environmental Protection Agency popped up at a time like this?

He stood up and walked to the window. The sky over Oxford Town was grey, the clouds hung low, and the tower crane in the distance was still slowly rotating.

He stared at the tower crane for a few seconds, his mind racing.

"Jessica," he turned around. "Get Robert over here. I want to hear it from him in person."

"He's already on his way," Victoria said.

When Robert arrived, his overalls were covered in mud, and he hadn't even had time to take off his hard hat. As soon as he entered, he started talking, his speed as fast as a machine gun.

"Mr. Mu, three people came—two in uniform and one in plain clothes."

"The one leading the team was a woman, in her forties. I forgot her last name, but I took a picture of her ID badge."

He took his phone out of his pocket, flipped to a photo, and handed it over. "She's from the Southwest District Office of the Ohio EPA. She said they received a report claiming the site has issues with dust pollution and soil erosion."

"Dust pollution? Soil erosion?" Mu Xin's tone was very flat, but Robert could tell there was something wrong suppressed beneath that calmness.

"Yes, that's all." Robert nodded. "They didn't check anything else."

"The water samples were taken from the lakeside, and the dust test was done at the site boundary. The whole process took less than two hours, and they left as soon as they issued the fine."

"How much was the fine?"

"Twelve thousand dollars. It was mainly a verbal warning. They said to submit a rectification plan within a week, and once it passes inspection, the case will be closed."

Mu Xin tapped his fingers lightly on the desk. A twelve-thousand-dollar verbal warning didn't even count as pocket money for him.

But the question was, why the Environmental Protection Agency? Why now? And why just a verbal warning?

When it comes to environmental issues in the United States, as long as you are determined to investigate, there isn't a single construction site where you can't find problems.

Dust, noise, soil erosion, waste disposal—you can find compliance flaws in every single one.

The State Environmental Protection Agency has extensive enforcement authority. The Ohio Revised Code explicitly authorizes Environmental Protection Agency enforcement officers to enter private and public property at any reasonable time to conduct on-site inspections, take samples for testing, and review records, without even needing to obtain a search warrant beforehand. This is a power explicitly granted to the Environmental Protection Agency by law.

If the owner refuses to cooperate, enforcement officers can apply to the court for an administrative search warrant to enforce compliance.

In other words, if the Environmental Protection Agency wants to mess with you, they have plenty of ways to do it.

But the people who came today weren't here to mess with him.

A twelve-thousand-dollar fine, a penalty decision based primarily on a verbal warning—they didn't even bring a formal notice of violation.

According to Ohio law, formal enforcement by the Environmental Protection Agency should include a notice of violation with specific clauses of non-compliance, but Robert didn't even have a piece of paper in his hand.

This didn't look like enforcement; it looked like going through the motions, more like a reminder:

"We've noticed you!"

Mu Xin leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about the Environmental Protection Agency. From day one, the hotel project had been dealing with environmental protection, and the approvals from the ODNR included environmental impact assessments.

All environmental protection plans were done to the highest standards. Rick Joy and Marwan Al-Sayed had incorporated environmental protection into their core considerations during the design phase.

He had spent a lot of money to hire the best environmental consulting firm in the country to create the plans, and every report could withstand scrutiny from any agency.

But the people from the Environmental Protection Agency who came today weren't checking those big things.

Dust and soil erosion are temporary issues during construction. Every construction site has them, and they can all be resolved through rectification.

They weren't checking whether the project itself was compliant or not; they were looking for an excuse to come knocking.

A twelve-thousand-dollar fine, and not even a formal notice. This wasn't about the fine; this was telling him that someone was watching his project.

And this person didn't want to burn bridges with him.

When Jessica walked in, Mu Xin had already been looking at various news records for nearly half an hour.

He had scoured the enforcement records of the Southwest District Office of the Ohio EPA for the past three years and had Jessica check the background of the woman who led the team.

"Anna Morris, forty-seven years old, deputy section chief of the enforcement division of the Southwest District Office, has worked at the Environmental Protection Agency for nineteen years."

Jessica placed the printed materials on the desk. "Her professional resume is very clean. No record of political donations, no public partisan leanings."

"That makes it even more interesting." Mu Xin tapped his fingers lightly on the desk.

"A technocrat who has worked for nineteen years suddenly comes to my construction site to check for dust. Who sent her?"

"Can't find out." Jessica shook her head. "Her superior is the district director, and the district director is appointed by the Governor."

"Governor DeWine's person?"

"Appointed by Governor DeWine." Jessica nodded. "But Governor DeWine wouldn't do something like this. If he wanted to block you, he wouldn't use such an indecisive method."

Mu Xin knew Jessica was right. If Governor DeWine wanted to mess with him, he could just make a phone call; he wouldn't need to send people from the Environmental Protection Agency to check for dust.

If it wasn't Governor DeWine, then who could it be?

That night, Mu Xin lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

It wasn't anxiety; it was an indescribable feeling. There was one more person on the other side of the chessboard, and he didn't yet know who that person was.

At past two in the morning, he sat up, picked up his phone, and sent a message to Richard Miller.

He knew Richard wouldn't be asleep at this hour either; the campaign matters were suffocating him, and he only slept four or five hours a day.

"Help me look into something. Has the Southwest District Office of the Environmental Protection Agency received any instructions from above recently? Or has anyone put in a word?"

Richard replied very quickly: "Okay, I'll get you the information tomorrow."

Mu Xin placed his phone face down on the nightstand and closed his eyes. He remembered something Governor DeWine had once said: "You are Chinese; no one will be watching you."

No one would be watching, but this time, someone was watching his project.