EPA Enforcement Roundup: Week of 7/1

The EPA Enforcement Roundup gives you insight into how and why US EPA and state partners assess penalties for environmental noncompliance. 

All violations or claims discussed below are alleged only unless we say otherwise, and we withhold the names of organizations and individuals to protect their privacy.

Your EPA Enforcement Roundup for this week:

A utility company and three municipalities enter a ~$139M settlement with EPA to resolve alleged drinking water violations.

Per EPA, the company supplied water exceeding legal limits for five regulated haloacetic acids known as HAA5 in 2019. EPA also alleges the company failed to construct and operate a filtration plant required by an EPA administrative order and the Surface Water Treatment Rule of the SDWA.

The defendants must:

• Complete the $138M drinking water filtration plant construction project
• Pay a $600,000 civil penalty
• Spend at least $900,000 on a supplemental environmental project to modify an extended detention basin and manage invasive species in its location.

A rail company faces enforcement action related to two train derailments and oil discharges into waters of the United States.

The company, headquartered in Bangor, Maine, had trains derail on separate occasions in October 2022 and April 2023. The alleged result was nearly 15,000-gallons of oil being spilled into waterways that flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

The company reported the spills to the National Response Center as required. Still, it must pay a penalty of $16,544 and donate equipment to one of the local fire departments that responded to one of the two derailment incidents to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.

A Greeley, Colorado scrapyard settled with EPA to resolve alleged violations related to releases of refrigerants.

The company, per EPA, failed to verify the proper recovery of all refrigerants from the appliances accepted at its scrapyard. As part of this settlement, the company must implement a refrigerant management plan and pay a $195,000 penalty.

Releases of these refrigerant compounds deplete the stratospheric ozone layer that protects life from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation and contribute to climate change.

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Tags: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, EPA Enforcement Roundup, Safe Drinking Water Act