The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Carlisle Construction Materials, LLC paid a $24,780 penalty for Clean Water Act violations that occurred at its former facility in McMinnville, Oregon.
In December 2021, an EPA inspector found several violations of the company’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit including:
- failure to document an undisclosed stormwater discharge source in their Stormwater Pollution Control Plan
- failure to monitor, sample, and visually inspect undisclosed stormwater discharge source
- failure to reduce exposure of crumb rubber pile against stormwater.
“EPA is committed to enforcing the stormwater rules under the Clean Water Act to protect our treasured Pacific Northwest waterbodies,” said EPA Region 10 Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Director Ed Kowalski. “In this case, this enforcement action helped prevent thousands of pounds of pollution from entering the South Yamhill River.”
Due to excessive levels of dissolved oxygen, phosphorus, iron, and for high temperatures, the South Yamhill River is considered an impaired waterbody by EPA and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
The river is not meeting its Clean Water Act beneficial uses for fish and other aquatic life.
The Clean Water Act prohibits discharging pollutants from industrial sources into a water of the United States without a NPDES permit. Stormwater can pick up pollutants like chemicals, oils, and sediment from industrial facilities which are then carried into waterways and harm fish and other aquatic life. The permit requires industrial sites to monitor, measure, and reduce stormwater pollution leaving their facilities.
Additional details can be found in the Expedited Settlement Agreement.
from EPA News Releases https://ift.tt/tLvMpZF