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Macomb Brewing settles stormwater discharge case, city awarded administrative costs
Summary
A city hearing found that leachate from a dump trailer at Macomb Brewing reached a storm drain. The parties agreed to a settlement: the city will be paid administrative costs and no civil fine will be imposed after the business remediated the leak.
The Fernandina Beach special magistrate found evidence that spent‑grain leachate from a dump trailer at Macomb Brewing reached a nearby storm drain but accepted the parties' settlement to avoid further delay. Crystal Rimes, the city’s code enforcement officer, documented the spill, photographs, three inspections and said the discharge was observed by the city’s stormwater department after an initial inspection on June 26, 2026.
Matt Hare, operations manager for Macomb Brewing, told the magistrate that the material was spent brewing grain collected by a local farmer for livestock and that the trailer has since been lined and moved behind repaired gates. On why the city described the event as irreparable, the stormwater representative told the hearing: "So the way the stormwater system works, that water does not get treated before it gets discharged into the Intracoastal Waterway." Magistrate Harrison Poole said he would be guided by competent substantial evidence and, after parties agreed to settle, ordered that the city be awarded administrative costs and that no fine be imposed today. The magistrate noted a written order and payment deadline would follow.
