A Butler County trailer park owner accused for years of polluting a stream with sewage water from a dilapidated treatment plant has been ordered to shut down the property.

In a consent order signed Jan. 14, county Judge S. Michael Yeager told Victor Kennedy, owner of Kennedy Mobile Home Park in Marion, to close the park for good by the end of the month.

Four residents still live on the property, once home to about 30. The others began moving away last year, after the state Department of Environmental Protection ordered Mr. Kennedy to shut down his sewage treatment plant by the end of July.

The DEP said the plant has long been discharging inadequately treated sewage into a tributary of McMurray Run in the Slippery Rock Creek watershed.

The state said Mr. Kennedy has also ignored all attempts to get him to cooperate, forcing the DEP to take enforcement action.

In 2005, the agency ordered him to hire an engineer and come up with a plan to fix the plant. He appealed and lost but didn't fix anything.

In 2007, the DEP fined him $37,500 for 87 violations of the Clean Streams Law. He didn't pay the fine.

After Mr. Kennedy rejected two court-approved settlement offers, the agency ordered him in March to decommission the plant by Aug. 1. He appealed and at first didn't comply, the DEP said.

The agency then sought the consent decree, which Mr. Kennedy signed, that includes closing the park by Jan. 31.

"The department is determined to bring an end to this saga of disregard for environmental laws," said Kelly Burch, northwest regional director, in a statement.

Since the March order, the DEP has been in contact with Butler County social service agencies to help residents find new housing.

The consent decree requires Mr. Kennedy to withdraw his appeal of the March order, make sure all the trailers are vacated, disconnect and cap sewage and water lines and dispose of all sewage from the septic tanks by Feb. 15.

The decree also requires Mr. Kennedy to pay a $60,500 penalty, of which he has paid $10,000. If he complies with the decree, according to the DEP, he won't have to pay the rest.

Mr. Kennedy could not be reached for comment.