DETROIT, Michigan, December 30, 2008 (ENS) – In long-running case that affects the scope of federal jurisdiction over wetlands and other waters, developer John Rapanos and related defendants agreed Monday to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act at three sites in Midland and Bay counties, Michigan.

Rapanos has agreed to pay a $150,000 civil penalty and will spend an estimated $750,000 to mitigate for 54 acres of wetlands that were filled without authorization under the Clean Water Act, according to a joint statement by the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

While Rapanos did not admit doing anything wrong, he has agreed to preserve an additional 134 acres of wetlands that were unaffected by the unauthorized activity. Under the agreement, the preservation of these areas will be enforced through a conservation easement held by the state of Michigan.

“After litigating this case for a number of years, we are pleased to reach a settlement that so strongly benefits the environment and serves the public interest,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“This longstanding case demonstrates that EPA continues to vigorously pursue violations of the Clean Water Act that adversely affect wetlands,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lynn Buhl.

“The settlement will benefit the environment in Bay County by preserving a substantial amount of wetlands that play a vital role in water quality, flood control and fisheries,” she said.

In the late 1980s, Rapanos filled 54 acres of wetland that he owned with sand in preparation for the construction of a mall and residences without filing for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He dug an extensive network of ditches to dry out the sites, which resulted in excavated dirt being sidecast into wetlands.

A Michigan wetland, not the Rapanos property (Photo by
Dawn Ulmer)

Rapanos argued that the land was not a wetland and that he was not breaking the law, but his own consultant and state employees disagreed.

The original enforcement action was filed against Rapanos in 1994. Rapanos was convicted of two felonies for filling wetlands in violation of law in 1995. The conviction was overturned and restored several times but, in the end, he was forced to serve three years of probation and pay $5,000 in fines.

Eventually, Rapanos appealed the civil case against him, which included millions of dollars of fines, to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Rapanos challenged the EPA’s findings that the filled wetlands were under federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

The case turned on the legality of the federal regulations that define waters of the United States. The focus was on regulation of wetlands adjacent to non-navigable tributaries of traditional navigable waters and regulation of wetlands separated from such tributaries by a berm.

Rapanos’ land is 20 miles from the nearest navigable waterway, a Lake Huron tributary river. However, the term “navigable waterway” has been broadly interpreted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to include areas connected to or linked to waters via tributaries or other similar means.

The 2006 Supreme Court litigation determined that Rapanos did fill wetlands under federal jurisdiction. But the Supreme Court sent the case back to the federal district court in Detroit, saying regulators might have exceeded their authority in preventing Rapanos and another landowner from developing their properties.

That ruling eventually led to Monday’s settlement.

But the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision left the law on federal jurisdiction over waters of the United States and adjacent wetlands unclear.

The plurality opinion, authored by Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, interpreted “waters” under the Clean Water Act to be limited to “only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water ‘forming geographic features’ that are described in ordinary parlance as ’streams … oceans, rivers [and] lakes.’”

This definition does not include channels through which water flows intermittently, or channels that periodically provide drainage for rainfall.

Regarding “adjacent” wetlands, the plurality argued that “only those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are ‘waters of the United States’ in their own right, so that there is no clear demarcation between ‘waters’ and wetlands ‘adjacent to’ such waters, are covered by the Clean Water Act.”

Chief Justice Roberts, in a concurring opinion, suggested that lower courts and regulated entities would have to “feel their way on a case-by-case basis.”

Justice John Stevens wrote a dissenting opinion in the case, joined by Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. The dissenting justices argued that the Supreme Court had previously upheld the regulation of wetlands adjacent to tributaries of navigable waters and that the court should defer to the agencies’ regulation of wetlands adjacent to non-navigable tributaries.

The Supreme Court’s deciding vote was cast by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in a separate opinion steered a middle course between the opposing sides. Kennedy found that water draining from the Rapanos property does, in fact, flow into a stream and then into a navigable lake 20 miles away. But Kennedy said that just because water drains into a distant navigable lake is not in itself enough to trigger the wetlands protections under the Clean Water Act.

Exactly what would be sufficient remained unclear in his opinion.

Following the Supreme Court’s divided ruling in the Rapanos case, confusion has reigned among the agencies, the regulated community, and the courts over the definition of which waters are covered by the Clean Water Act.

Nevertheless, the consent decree to settle the Rapanos civil complaint was lodged Monday in the U.S. District Court in Detroit. It is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of the proposed consent decree is available on the Justice Department website at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

There is a parallel criminal matter that is still pending and is not affected by the settlement under this agreement.

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 17, 2008 (ENS) – ExxonMobil has agreed to pay nearly $6.1 million in civil penalties for violating the terms of a 2005 court-approved Clean Air Act agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate violation of our consent decrees,” said Assistant Attorney General Ronald Tenpas of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The significant penalty in this case shows that non-compliance with settlement requirements will have serious consequences.”

The agreement penalizes ExxonMobil for failing to comply with the 2005 settlement at four refineries in Beaumont and Baytown, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Torrance, California.[ig=/UPLOADS/blog/ecommunity_news/blogpost_data/08_12_15/20081217_093_baytown.jpg]ExxonMobil’s Baytown refinery is the largest in
the country. (Photo courtesy Center for Land
Use Interpretation)[/img]

The Baytown Refinery, 20 miles east of Houston, is the largest oil refinery in the United States, with a crude capacity of approximately 567,000 barrels per day.

The Baton Rouge Refinery is the second-largest oil refinery in the United States, with a crude capacity of approximately 503,000 barrels per day.

Most of the penalties are for failure to monitor and control the sulfur content in certain fuel gas streams burned in refinery furnaces, as required by the 2005 settlement and EPA regulations.

Between 2005 and 2007, ExxonMobil did not monitor the sulfur content in some fuel gas streams and subsequent testing revealed sulfur content in excess of EPA limits. The burning of sulfur-containing gases emits sulfur dioxide, which can cause serious respiratory problems and is a major component of acid rain.

The 2005 settlement required ExxonMobil to pay a $7.7 million civil penalty, perform an additional $6.7 million in supplemental environmental projects in communities around the company’s refineries, and install pollution controls at six of its refineries.

“The 2005 settlement has already resulted in major reductions in air emissions from the company’s refineries, but we need full compliance to realize all the benefits of the settlement,” said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA will continue to enforce against companies that fail to comply with the terms of court-approved settlements.”

The 2005 settlement and today’s penalty settlement with ExxonMobil were reached as part of a broader EPA initiative to reduce air pollution from ExxonMobil refineries nationwide.

In late 2005, the United States concluded a settlement with ExxonMobil covering all of its North American refineries. The settlement required ExxonMobil to spend more than $570 million to install and implement innovative emission control technologies at its refineries. ExxonMobil paid an $8.7 million civil penalty and committed to spend more than $9.7 million on environmentally beneficial projects to further reduce emissions.

In a separate action today, the two federal agencies are proposing amendments to the 2005 settlement that include minor technical changes and new deadlines for some required activities at ExxonMobil’s Beaumont and Baytown, Texas refineries and two others covered by the original settlement in Joliet, Illinois and Billings, Montana.

The proposed amendments, filed today with the U.S. District Court in Chicago, are subject to a 30-day public comment period.

For more information on the Exxon Mobil Petroleum Refinery Settlement amendments and agreements, click here.

Since March 2000, the EPA has entered into 22 settlements with U.S. companies that have nearly 87 percent of the nation’s petroleum refining capacity. These settlements cover 96 refineries in 28 states and on full implementation will result in annual emissions reductions on more than 86,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and more than 245,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, the agency says.

Negotiations are continuing with other refiners representing an additional six percent of domestic refining capacity and investigations are underway on others.

For more on the Petroleum Refinery Initiative, click here.

On Tuesday, ExxonMobil Refining & Supply announced it will invest more than $1 billion in three refineries to increase the supply of cleaner burning low sulfur diesel by about six million gallons per day. The company will construct new units and modify existing facilities at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Baytown, Texas; and Antwerp, Belgium refineries.

“This underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to meeting the growing needs of the marketplace, while, at the same time, providing cleaner burning fuels to consumers. Our increase in diesel production at these three sites will be equal to the diesel produced from about four average-size refineries,” said Sherman Glass, president of Refining & Supply.

“In combination with cleaner-burning engines and the latest vehicle emissions control technologies, this low sulfur diesel reduces emissions in both on-road transportation, and off-road industrial sectors,” said Glass.

This investment is the latest phase in ExxonMobil’s efforts to increase supplies and reduce the sulfur content of both motor gasoline and diesel. In 2000, the company began to convert and modify refineries, terminals and pipelines to provide ultra low sulfur fuel products.

By 2010, the refineries’ modifications and expansions are expected to be completed, increasing production of diesel with sulfur levels of 15 parts per million or less.

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PHOENIX, Arizona, October 13, 2008 (ENS) – An Arizona land developer and a contractor have agreed to pay one of the largest fines in the history of the U.S. EPA to settle alleged violations of the Clean Water Act for bulldozing, filling, and diverting five miles of the Santa Cruz River, a major waterway in Arizona.

According to the settlement lodged last week in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, developer George H. Johnson of Scottsdale, his companies Johnson International, Inc.; and General Hunt Properties, Inc.; and land-clearing contractor, 3-F Contracting, Inc. will pay a combined $1.25 million civil penalty to the United States.

The Johnson defendants will pay $1 million and 3-F Contracting, Inc. will pay $250,000.

The combined penalty is the largest obtained in the history of EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region, and one of the largest in EPA’s history.

“A seven-figure penalty in this type of enforcement case is virtually unprecedented,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “It underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to enforce the nation’s laws that protect valuable water resources in Arizona and other arid western states, and to hold violators of those laws accountable.”

The Santa Cruz river (Photo by Matt Hays)

The settlement resolves a Clean Water Act complaint filed in 2005 by the Justice Department and the EPA against Johnson and his companies for clearing and filling an extensive stretch of the lower Santa Cruz River and a major tributary, the Los Robles Wash, without a permit from the Corps of Engineers.

They allegedly violated sections of the Act that protect against the unauthorized filling of federally protected waterways through a permit program administered jointly by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“The Santa Cruz River is a gem in Arizona’s crown, as it flows from Arizona to Mexico back into Arizona, sustaining life, habitat for animals and plants, and providing so many benefits for residents of southern Arizona,” said Alexis Strauss, director of EPA’s Water Division for the Pacific Southwest Region.

“This settlement reflects both the strong emphasis EPA places on protecting this important watershed and the seriousness of the alleged violations,” she said.

The alleged violations occurred in 2003 and early 2004, when defendants bulldozed 2,000 acres of the historic King Ranch and La Osa Ranch in Pinal County, Arizona, discharging dirt, spoil, rock and sand, all of which constitute “pollutants” as defined in the Clean Water Act.

The bulldozed areas lie within the largest active floodplain of the lower Santa Cruz River, which meanders through the two ranches in natural braids, a rarity for this heavily channelized waterway.

Prior to defendants’ land-clearing activities, this stretch of the Santa Cruz River supported a rich variety of vegetation, including 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 case was referred to the EPA by the Corps of Engineers after concerned citizens, tribes, and local, state and federal agencies complained about the serious flooding dangers and ecological impacts in connection with defendants’ land-clearing activities.

The Johnson defendants sold the ranches in 2004.

In their complaint, the EPA and Justice Department had asked that the defendants restore those parts of the Santa Cruz River they had altered and/or to conduct off-site mitigation for unrestorable environmental damage, but these requests do not form part of the settlement agreed by Johnson and his contractor.

The proposed consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court in Phoenix, is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of the proposed consent decree is available on the Justice Department Web site at www.usdoj.gov.

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CHICAGO, Illinois, September 9, 2008 (ENS) – In the first settlement secured by the federal government in its enforcement of the Clean Air Act to reduce air emissions from Portland cement plants, two companies that own and operate a cement plant near Dixon, Illinois will pay an $800,000 civil penalty and install pollution controls.

The Portland cement industry is the third largest source of industrial emissions in the nation, emitting more than 500,000 tons per year of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.

The U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that St. Marys Cement Inc. and St. Barbara Cement Inc. have agreed to have pollution control equipment in operation by April 30, 2009, and from then on to achieve required emission reductions at three of the four cement production lines at their Dixon facility located in north-central Illinois.

“This precedent-setting settlement is the first for the Portland cement industry,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We are pleased that this settlement will provide important environmental benefits without the need for complicated and prolonged litigation.”

The Dixon cement plant must curb
its air emissions. (Photo courtesy
St. Marys Cement)

Headquartered in Toronto, St. Marys supplies cementitious materials to the Great Lakes Region in the United States and Canada and is also a producer of concrete and aggregates to the Ontario market.

St. Marys Cement is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos, an international cement manufacturer based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

By merger, St. Barbara Cement, Inc. became successor to Cemex Central Plains Cement, LLC, the former owner of the Dixon plant, and assumed liability for the emissions about which the federal government complained.

In a complaint filed Monday, concurrently with the lodging of the consent decree, the federal government alleged that the two companies illegally operated four cement kilns at the Dixon plant after they had been modified in a manner that allowed the kilns to emit more pollution.

The government cited the companies for operating the modified kilns without obtaining necessary permits and installing required pollution control equipment as required by the New Source Review requirements of the Clean Air Act.

Without admitting liability, the two companies have agreed to replace a kiln at the Dixon plant with technology to reduce emissions or to permanently shut it down. These actions will reduce combined emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides by approximately 2,700 tons each year, the federal agencies said.

In 2006, EPA began to focus on improving compliance with the Clean Air Act at Portland cement manufacturing facilities across the country due to widespread noncompliance and significant amounts of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emitted during the manufacturing process.

“This settlement marks a significant step in controlling harmful nitrogen oxide emissions at the Dixon plant, and from Portland cement manufacturing facilities in general,” said Cheryl Newton, acting director of the Air and Radiation Division of the EPA’s Region 5 Office in Chicago.

“The installation of state-of-the-art technology sets an important benchmark for the control of this harmful pollutant,” she said. “EPA is committed to ensuring that cement manufacturers comply with the Clean Air Act.”

A copy of the consent decree is available on the Justice Department website at: http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/open.html.

Portland cement, which is used in virtually all types of concrete, is produced by heating limestone, clay, and other raw materials at high temperatures to form “clinker,” which is then blended with gypsum and ground into a fine powder. This powder, known as Portland cement, is mixed with water, sand, and stone to form concrete.

Nitrogen oxide emissions cause severe respiratory problems and contribute to childhood asthma. This pollutant is also a significant contributor to acid rain, smog, and haze which impair visibility in national parks.

The EPA says air pollution from Portland cement manufacturing facilities can travel long distances downwind, crossing state lines and creating region-wide health problems.

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TOLEDO, Ohio, August 26, 2008 (ENS) – At Oak Harbor, Ohio, 21 miles southeast of the city of Toledo, lies the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, where a hole the size of a football was discovered in the head of the nuclear reactor vessel in March 2002.

Today, a federal jury in Toledo convicted a former reactor coolant system engineer at the facility of lying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the safety condition of that reactor vessel head.

The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant at Oak
Harbor, Ohio. (Photo courtesy NRC)

“Today, after hearing all the facts, a federal jury convicted Andrew Siemaszko for concealing the truth from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The effectiveness of the NRC’s regulation and the safe operation of the nation’s nuclear power plants depends on honest and forthright information.”

The evidence at trial showed that during the fall of 2001 Andrew Siemaszko falsely represented to the NRC that past inspections of the reactor vessel head at Davis-Besse were adequate to assure safe operation of the facility until spring of 2002 when the utility operator, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, had scheduled a regular refueling shutdown.

During that refueling outage, workers discovered the hole in the head of the reactor vessel, the container where the nuclear reaction occurs.

Analysis showed the hole resulted from a leak of corrosive reactor coolant containing boric acid through a crack that had opened where control rod guide nozzles were welded to the lid of the reactor vessel.

Boric acid is dissolved in a plant’s reactor coolant water. Inspections revealed that there were deposits of boric acid on the reactor head that got worse over time and eventually blocked holes that should have been used for inspections.

Siemaszko’s false statements to the NRC were in response to a bulletin issued by the agency in August 2001 that warned of a cracking problem at similar plants and sought information about Davis-Besse.

This nozzle cracking problem had first been observed at similar U.S. plants in late 2000, and the NRC warned in the bulletin that it could lead to breaks where the nozzles penetrated the lid of the steel-walled reactor vessel.

Such a break could release pressurized reactor coolant water into the containment building. The NRC estimated that if Davis-Besse had operated for another two to 11 months, the damaged reactor vessel head could have failed, causing a serious loss of coolant accident. A near-meltdown had been narrowly averted.

The NRC bulletin warned that small boric acid deposits were a sign of nozzle cracking. In the bulletin, the federal agency required FirstEnergy Nuclear and other utilities to report on their plants’ susceptibility to cracking, the steps they had taken to detect it and their plans for addressing the problem in the future.

Because FirstEnergy Nuclear chose not to inspect the nozzles before December 31, 2001, it was also required to justify operation beyond that date.

Boric acid corrosion on the Davis-Besse reactor
vessel head (Photo courtesy NIRS)

In the months following the issuance of the bulletin, FirstEnergy Nuclear submitted to the NRC five letters that included details of past inspections.

The jury determined that they were based in part on false information that Siemaszko contributed about his own inspection of the reactor vessel head and information based on video records of inspections conducted by others.

Video evidence presented to the jury of the inspection performed by Siemaszko in 2000, showed that the camera used for inspections was physically blocked by boric acid deposits and that very few of the nozzles that were the subject of the NRC’s bulletin could be assessed for cracking.

At trial, the government proved that Siemaszko knew that he had given false reports and that he presented information orally to the NRC that emphasized false conclusions, including the statement that he was “at peace in his soul” regarding the 2000 inspection results.

Siemaszko was convicted of concealing the condition of Davis-Besse’s reactor vessel head and of concealing how poor past inspections of that head had been.

He also was convicted of using false writings in FirstEnergy Nuclear’s interactions with the NRC, including false statements about the extent of inspections done in 1996, 1998 and 2000.

After the cavity in the Davis-Besse reactor vessel head was discovered, FirstEnergy Nuclear disciplined a number of its employees. Siemaszko was fired and brought a whistleblower complaint against the company.

Andrew Siemaszko (Photo courtesy
Ohio Citizen Action)

According to a Department of Labor investigator who testified at the trial, the complaint was fully investigated and dismissed. The investigator testified that Siemaszko admitted during the whistleblower investigation that he lied to the NRC and was terminated for that reason.

Special agents of the NRC’s Office of Investigations and a senior reactor inspector from NRC’s Region III developed the case and referred it to the Department of Justice.

The investigation and prosecution were conducted jointly by the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, as well as the NRC Office of Investigations.

Siemaszko’s co-defendant David Geisen was convicted on October 31, 2007, on similar charges. Another co-defendant, Rodney Cook, was acquitted. Sentencing in for Siemaszko has not yet been scheduled.

Siemaszko has supporters who do not believe that he is guilty as charged. The Union of Concerned Scientists and the advocacy group Ohio Citizen Action both say Siemaszko is innocent.

Ohio Citizen Action composed a letter for its followers to send to government officials that says, “The records of Mr. Siemaszko’s actions show that he was carrying out his job of cleaning the reactor head in good faith until management brought a halt to the work. By FirstEnergy’s own admission, the root cause of the problem began in the mid-1990s, several years before Mr. Siemaszko was even employed at the plant.”

FirstEnergy Nuclear is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp, based in Akron, Ohio. In April 2005, the company was fined $5.45 million over the Davis-Besse reactor head incident, the largest single fine ever proposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The main violation was that the utility restarted and operated the Davis-Besse plant in May 2000 without fully characterizing and eliminating leakage from the reactor vessel head, which led to significant corrosion damage.

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LAS VEGAS, Nevada, August 8, 2008 (ENS) – The operator of a closed landfill near Las Vegas that has been leaking contaminants into the lake that provides drinking water to Las Vegas, Phoenix and southern California has agreed to construct and operate a $36 million remedy for the site and to pay a $1 million civil fine.

Republic Services of Southern Nevada is the current operator of the Sunrise Mountain Landfill, an unlined 440-acre closed municipal solid waste landfill located three miles outside the Las Vegas city limits.

It contains over 49 million cubic yards of municipal solid waste, medical waste, sewage sludge, asbestos, construction waste and soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

The landfill cover failed during a series of storms in September 1998, sending waste into the Las Vegas Wash, which discharges directly into Lake Mead.

Sunrise Landfill is leaking contaminants
into Lake Mead. (Photo courtesy
Clark County)

In a consent decree, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, Republic Services agreed to implement extensive stormwater controls, an armored engineered cover, methane gas collection, groundwater monitoring, and long-term operation and maintenance, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

“Today’s settlement will minimize the risk to Clark County residents from polluted water runoff and hazardous waste discharges from the Sunrise Mountain landfill,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“This settlement reflects the federal government’s commitment to protecting valuable natural resources like Lake Mead and its watershed,” Tenpas said.

The remedy, which is expected to take roughly two years to build, will be designed to withstand a 200 year storm and is expected to cost over $36 million.

Upon completion, the remedy is estimated to prevent the release of over 14 million pounds of contaminants annually, including stormwater pollutants, methane gas and landfill leachate.

The landfill was operated on behalf of Clark County by entities related to Republic Services of Southern Nevada from the 1950s through 1993. Its parent company, the publicly traded Republic Services, Inc., is the third largest waste collection and management company in the United States.

Following the landfill cover failure in 1998, the EPA ordered Republic Dumpco, a company related to Republic Services of Southern Nevada, and the Clark County Public Works Department to correct violations of the federal clean water laws and to immediately stabilize the site.

“Landfill operators must ensure that effective safeguards are in place to protect the environment and nearby communities,” Wayne Nastri, administrator of the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region said Thursday from his office in San Francisco. “With today’s agreement, Republic is required to properly close the landfill and ensure long-term waste containment.”

The proposed consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.

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GROTON, Connecticut, June 25, 2008 (ENS) – The pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. has agreed to pay a $975,000 civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its former manufacturing plant in Groton, Connecticut. The company stopped making pharmaceuticals at the plant in January.

The settlement is the first of its type in federal court under Clean Air Act regulations controlling the emissions of hazardous air pollutants from pharmaceutical manufacturing, the U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday.

The new rules, known as PharmaMACT regulations, impose Maximum Achievable Control Technology, or MACT, standards – industry-specific measures that must be implemented to control hazardous air pollutants in order to prevent harm to human health or the environment.

During its production of pharmaceutical-grade chemicals, Pfizer used substances such as methanol, hydrogen chloride, methylene chloride, MTBE, hexane, toluene, and many others, which are classified by the EPA as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

The alleged violations occurred between October 2002 and December 2005, resulting from a failure of Pfizer’s leak detection and repair program at its Groton plant.

They included a failure to properly conduct pressure tests to identify leaks, repair leaks before start-up, equip open-ended lines with a seal, and document leak tests to establish full compliance with the requirements.

Pfizer research center at Groton,
Connecticut (Photo by Russ Glasson)

“This significant penalty, the first in federal court under the PharmaMACT regulations, should send a strong message to the pharmaceutical industry that they must be diligent in detecting and repairing leaks of hazardous substances,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“We will not wait to enforce the law until after a catastrophe occurs,” he said.

Under the agreement, Pfizer certifies that the violations have been corrected. But the EPA says the violations undermined the agency’s ability to determine compliance, which presented the risk of excess emissions of hazardous air pollutants for leaks that were not timely detected and repaired.

“All facilities that produce hazardous air pollutants must carefully adhere to all provisions of EPA’s Clean Air requirements to ensure that we are taking every necessary step to protect human health and our environment,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office.

Pfizer, a publicly traded corporation, with 2007 revenues of $48.4 billion, operates about 80 manufacturing plants worldwide, where it makes healthcare products relating to human and animal health.

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KANSAS CITY, Kansas, June 16, 2008 (ENS) – Eight years of gasoline and fuel oil spills from pipelines in Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Arkansas into nearby waterways has cost a publicly traded Oklahoma pipeline company more than $5 million.

Magellan Midstream Partners today agreed to pay a $5.3 million civil penalty for these alleged violations of the Clean Water Act, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

The spills had a number of causes, including third party damage from farm equipment and bulldozers, corrosion, leaks and pipeline operator error.

“This agreement will ensure that the company will take steps to prevent members of the general public from accidentally damaging this pipeline, the most common cause of the pipeline spills addressed in this action,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

The settlement was reached without Tulsa-based Magellan admitting violations of the Clean Water Act.

“We are pleased to have resolved this historical issue with the EPA, and Magellan has more than adequately reserved for this matter in our previous financial results,” said Don Wellendorf, chief executive officer.

“We believe safe operations and environmental stewardship are essential elements of success, and our management team and employees are focused on ensuring compliance with safety and environmental laws and regulations in all aspects of our business,” Wellendorf said.

According to the federal government complaint, the company discharged more than 17,000 barrels of gas and fuel oil on 11 different dates between March 1999 and May 2006.

Two of the largest spills flowed into a tributary and into the Missouri River itself in 1999 and 2005.

In 2005, approximately 2,830 barrels of unleaded gasoline spilled from a ruptured pipe near Kansas City, Kansas, most of which flowed into the Missouri River, and in 1999, over 4,500 barrels of diesel fuel spilled into the Missouri River near Atchison, Kansas.

Magellan also agreed to resolve allegations related to Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure regulations for violations found at two facilities in Iowa and Nebraska.

The Clean Water Act authorizes EPA to establish SPCC regulations for preventing, preparing for and responding to oil spills or hazardous substances that may reach surface waters.

Along with the civil penalty, Magellan has agreed to establish a program to minimize third-party damage to the pipeline system, a cause of some of the spills, and will spend $750,000 on removing or minimizing any external threats along selected segments of its pipeline.

The company will also implement system-wide changes to improve employee training, leak response procedures and protocols for detecting and responding to leaks and ruptures.

Magellan is the owner and operator of a 6,700 mile long petroleum pipeline network and 39 terminal facilities in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma.

The pipeline transports gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel from refineries through interconnections with other interstate pipelines to retail gasoline stations, truck stops, railroads, airports and other end users.

“Pipeline owners and operators must take steps to minimize the potential of fuel and oil spills,” said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s settlement will prevent spills that can pollute our waters and harm sensitive ecosystems.”

The consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court for Kansas, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court. Magellan is required to pay the penalty within 30 days of the court’s approval of the settlement. A copy of the consent decree is available on the Justice Department website [www.usdoj.gov].

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WASHINGTON, DC, June 12, 2008 (ENS) – Four of the country’s largest home builders have agreed to pay civil penalties totaling $4.3 million to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

The four separate settlements resolve alleged violations of stormwater runoff regulations at construction sites in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

The companies have agreed to implement environmental compliance programs that go beyond current regulatory requirements and put controls in place that will keep 1.2 billion pounds of sediment from polluting U.S. waterways each year.

Centex Homes, based in Dallas, Texas will pay the largest penalty, $1,485,000, although the company has been trying to build a reputation as a “green” developer, promoting the Built Green program through its company marketing materials and providing “green” training to its superintendents and marketing personnel.

KB Home, based in Los Angeles, will pay $1,185,000, although this company too, proclaims its green credentials – use of recycled materials, certified sustainable woods, and homes built to conserve energy.

Richmond American Homes, based in Denver, is being penalized $795,000 and Pulte Homes, based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, will pay $877,000.

Pulte Homes also has agreed to complete a supplemental environmental project at a minimum cost of $608,000. The project will reduce the amount of sediment going into a northern California watershed and improve the habitat for aquatic life.

Centex homes under construction
(Photo by Twanda Baker)

“Today’s settlements mark an important step forward in protecting our waters from harmful stormwater runoff from construction activities,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “In the future, these homebuilders will implement company-wide compliance programs that will provide better and more consistent protections at their construction sites across the country.”

Along with the federal government, seven state co-plaintiffs have joined the settlements. Those states are Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee and Utah. Each of the seven states will receive a portion of the penalties based on the number of sites located within that state.

Combined, the four builders accounted for more than 124,000 home closings in 2006, and are ranked nationally among the top 10 home builders in terms of home closings and revenues.

The government complaints allege a common pattern of violations that was discovered by reviewing documentation submitted by the companies and through federal and state site inspections.

The alleged violations include not obtaining permits until after construction had begun or failing to obtain the required permits at all.

At the sites that did have permits, violations included failure to prevent or minimize the discharge of pollutants, such as silt and debris, in stormwater runoff.

The settlements require the companies to develop improved pollution prevention plans for each site, increase site inspections and promptly correct any problems that are detected.

The companies must properly train construction managers and contractors, and are required to have trained staff at each construction site. They also must implement a management and internal reporting system to improve oversight of on-the-ground operations and submit annual reports to the EPA.

“EPA requires that construction sites obtain permits and take simple, basic steps to prevent pollutants from contaminating stormwater and harming our nation’s waterways,” said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s settlements set a new bar for the home building industry.”

Improving compliance at construction sites is one of EPA’s national enforcement priorities. Construction projects have a high potential for environmental harm because they disturb large areas of land and increase the potential for erosion.

Without onsite pollution controls, sediment-laden runoff from construction sites can flow directly to the nearest waterway and degrade water quality. In addition, stormwater can pick up other pollutants, including concrete washout, paint, used oil, pesticides, solvents and other debris.

Polluted runoff can harm or kill fish and wildlife and can affect drinking water quality.

The Clean Water Act requires that construction sites have controls in place to prevent pollution from being discharged with stormwater into nearby waterways. These controls include simple pollution prevention techniques such as silt fences, phased site grading, and sediment basins to prevent common construction contaminants from entering the nation’s waterways.

The consent decrees, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, are subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.

The companies are required to pay the penalty within 30 days of the court’s approval of the settlement. Copies of the consent decrees are available on the Justice Department website at: www.usdoj.gov.

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PHOENIX, Arizona, May 19, 2008 (ENS) – Motorola, Inc., Siemens Corp. and GlaxoSmithKline will collectively pay a $500,000 civil penalty for system failures that led to the release of trichloroethylene, TCE, into the public drinking water system in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

TCE above contamination limits was released from the Miller Road Treatment Facility on two separate occasions, in October 2007 and January 2008. These releases violate the terms of the North Indian Bend Wash consent decree, filed in 2003, the federal agencies say.

Trichloroethylene is a colorless liquid which is used as a solvent for cleaning metal parts. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances says, “Drinking or breathing high levels of trichloroethylene may cause nervous system effects, liver and lung damage, abnormal heartbeat, coma, and possibly death.”

Given the serious nature of these incidents, the EPA and the Justice Department demanded the significant penalties provided for under the Superfund law for each groundwater violation as well as demanding penalties for inaccurate reporting of the incidents to the regulator.

“These three companies failed to properly treat groundwater for TCE at the site and further failed to alert proper authorities about the release despite being under an agreement to do both,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“This unique approach allowed the EPA and the Justice Department to impose significant penalties and sends a strong message to these companies that system failures are unacceptable,” said Wayne Nastri, administrator for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest office. “Proper operation and maintenance of the treatment system is the responsibility of the participating companies and is essential to ensuring that these types of failures do not occur in the future.”

The complaint and stipulation and order were filed today in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Though the Miller Road Treatment Facility is owned and operated by the Arizona American Water Company, under the terms of the consent decree, Motorola, Siemens and GlaxoSmithKline are responsible for the remedy, which requires pumping and treating contaminated groundwater so that TCE does not exceed an acceptable limit of five parts per billion.

The Central Groundwater treatment facility
at the Indian Wash Superfund Site.
(Photo courtesy EPA)

The first incident at the Miller Road Treatment Facility occurred in October 2007 when a blower failure resulted in groundwater leaving the facility above the contamination level.

Equipment failures in January 2008 resulted in untreated groundwater entering the drinking water system above contamination limits.

After the second system failure, the Miller Road Treatment Facility was shut down to investigate and remedy system malfunctions.

In late April, following approval from the EPA, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and Maricopa County officials, the system was restarted.

Upgrades and operation and maintenance improvements include additional safety measures, the presence of an operator 24 hours a day and the installation of new control panels, alarms and daily sampling.

The most contaminated well is no longer used by Arizona American Water Company.

The Indian Bend Wash Superfund Site is 13 square miles and is located in Scottsdale and Tempe, Arizona. In 1981, TCE was discovered in several drinking water wells in the area. Since September 1988, EPA has required the construction of treatment facilities to contain the TCE and to provide potable water to Scottsdale.

Motorola, Siemens, and GlaxoSmithKline, along with several smaller companies, have paid for the approximately $100 million in cleanup costs. Cleanup has constisted of several stations that pump and treat groundwater.

The Indian Bend Wash Superfund Site is one of the largest Superfund sites in terms of volume of groundwater treated, estimated at 61.3 billion gallons.

On June 6, 2003, a settlement was reached that obligated Motorola, Siemens and SmithKlineBeecham, now GlaxoSmithKline, to continue operating and maintaining the enhanced remedy.

On Wednesday, May 21, the EPA is holding a public meeting at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library from 5:30 to 7:30 pm to discuss operations at the Miller Road Treatment Facility, the recent penalty and future plans for the site.

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TERRE HAUTE, Indiana, April 27, 2008 (ENS) – More than 1,200 acres of floodplain will be restored to wetlands and wildlife habitat under a partnership agreement between the state of Indiana and Vigo County.

The state is contributing $295,000 to help the county purchase the 1,250-acre Wabash River National Road Wetland Reservation located between Terre Haute and West Terre Haute to develop into a county park.

“Our efforts since 2005 have resulted in twice as many protected acres of wildlife habitat than in the previous five years. This joint effort will conserve another beautiful habitat as well as enhance the quality of life for Hoosiers,” said Governor Mitch Daniels, presenting the check to the county on behalf of the Indiana Heritage Trust and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife.

The area will be managed for migratory waterfowl and other native wildlife species that are found in the Wabash River corridor.

Areas of shallow water marsh, moist soil wetlands, hardwood trees and native grasses that are essential to native wildlife will be restored. These improvements will contribute to filtering stormwater runoff and serve as a flood control structure.

Hiking and biking trails, observation areas, a boat ramp and other recreational amenities will be incorporated into the park design.

Environmental education and research opportunities also will exist for area students from Vigo County School Corporation, Indiana State University, St. Mary-of-the-Woods College and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, among others.

“Without the cooperation and assistance of Governor Daniels and the state, a project of this magnitude would never have been possible,” said Max Miller, chairman of the Wabash River Beautification and Development Commission Wetlands Committee. “This project is a great example of what can be accomplished when you have leaders who care deeply about conservation in our state.”

The state’s contribution consists of $220,000 from the Indiana Heritage Trust program accrued from the sales of the environmental license plate and $75,000 from the DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is contributing almost $1.3 million to enroll 716 acres of the project into the USDA’s Wetland Reserve Program.

The balance of the estimated $1.8 million project purchase includes $150,000 of Vigo County Economic Development Income Tax funds and $95,000 from the Duke Energy Foundation along with other private contributions.

Last year, the state reached its goal of doubling the annual investment for multi-use trail funding to $20 million as part of the governor’s Hoosiers on the Move trails initiative to connect communities throughout the state and put every Hoosier within 15 minutes of a trail.

The Department of Natural Resources has purchased several segments of abandoned rail corridors totaling 150 miles, located in 39 counties throughout the state.

The state’s plan is to give the land to local governments and nonprofit groups for future trail expansions.

Since 2005, the state has protected more than 20,000 acres of wildlife habitat through land acquisition and conservation easements including 8,000 acres in Greene County commonly known as Goose Pond and Bee Hunter Marsh and the Trine State Recreation Area addition to Pokagon State Park.

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