ELLSWORTH - An Ellsworth construction company and its owner have agreed to pay a $16,017 civil fine and donate a conservation easement as part of a settlement of a case brought by federal regulators for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Robert Ray and Ray Builders Inc. also will fund a 3-year program of invasive species control at the 115-acre Great Meadow, one of the largest freshwater wetlands in Acadia National Park.

The agency said Ray and his company developed a 42-lot subdivision in Ellsworth without first obtaining a permit for filling wetlands from the Army Corps of Engineers. Road construction and development of the lots led to the discharge of dredged and fill material into forested wetlands next to streams flowing into Union River Bay, a tidal estuary.