網頁

星期五, 4月 28, 2023

麻州總檢察官辦公室和輪胎回收公司達成和解協議

AG’S OFFICE REACHES SETTLEMENTS WITH AYER AND REHOBOTH COMPANIES THAT ILLEGALLY DISCHARGED STORMWATER INTO LOCAL WATERWAYS 

Settlements, following Court Approval, Will Require Defendants to Monitor and Control Industrial Stormwater  

 

BOSTON – A tire recycling facility in Ayer and a concrete products manufacturing facility in Rehoboth have agreed to pay a total of more than $200,000 – most of which will fund projects to improve local water quality – in separate settlements reached with Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s Office over alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.  

 

The consent decrees, which have been filed with the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and are pending court approval, settle allegations that Ayer-based FBS Tire Recycling, Inc. and Rehoboth-based Nantucket Pavers, Inc. violated the federal Clean Water Act when they failed to fully comply with federal requirements that apply to discharges of industrial stormwater.  

 

“Improperly managed stormwater runoff poses significant risk to Massachusetts water quality and has the potential to harm our aquatic ecosystems as well as residents’ health,” AG Campbell said. “My office is committed to enforcing violations of clean water laws to protect the quality of the Commonwealth’s water and the health of these surrounding communities.”  

 

Today’s announcement is part of a civil enforcement initiative out of AG Campbell’s Environmental Protection Division that combats pollution by enforcing the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act and the federal Clean Air Act in Massachusetts, along with applicable state environmental laws. The AG’s Office has successfully resolved 18 cases under this initiative, directed over $1.3 million in funding to local environmental improvement projects and recovered $737,000 in civil penalties and enforcement costs since the program’s inception in 2019. 

 

Stormwater pollution is regulated under the federal Clean Water Act and is recognized as the largest threat to water quality in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts certain industrial facilities must obtain specific authorization for stormwater discharges, properly monitor and control their stormwater discharges, report their stormwater sampling results to U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and comply with state water protection laws. The AG’s Office alleges that both companies failed to take all of these required actions at their facilities. 

 

FBS Tire Recycling, Inc.   


FBS Tire Recycling operates a tire recycling facility in Ayer. In its complaint, the AG’s Office alleges that the defendant failed to manage the stormwater at the facility and this failure resulted in unlawful discharges of stormwater into a tributary of Bennetts Brook. The discharges from the facility frequently exceeded EPA benchmark levels, which are a standard of measurement by which pollutants, including heavy metals such as lead, copper, zinc, and aluminum, are monitored to determine the efficacy of a facility’s stormwater controls. Large amounts of heavy metals in stormwater can have detrimental impacts to aquatic environments and organisms.  

 

As part of the settlement, FBS will take steps to control stormwater by increasing stormwater monitoring, cleaning-up the facility, and enhancing stormwater management planning. The company also will pay $62,000 to the People of Ayer Concerned About the Environment (PACE) for projects that will benefit the Merrimack and Nashua River watershed and reimburse the AG’s Office for costs incurred in bringing the case. 

 

Bernard Hayes, Rebecca Buswell, Matt Carey, and Tim Maus, all from the Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup of the Central Regional Office of the Department of Environmental Protection, assisted with this matter.  

 

Nantucket Pavers, Inc.  

 

In a separate matter, the AG’s Office alleges that Nantucket Pavers, a concrete products manufacturing facility, unlawfully discharged industrial stormwater to wetlands connected to the Palmer River in Rehoboth without a permit. Stormwater from concrete products manufacturing facilities often includes sedimentary material such as sand or silt, which can become suspended in water and can destroy habitat, harm aquatic organisms, and contribute to flooding when discharged into waterways.  

 

Under the terms of the settlement, Nantucket Pavers will control and monitor stormwater discharges as is required by the stormwater permit. Nantucket Pavers also will pay $80,000 to the Town of Rehoboth for projects to improve water quality in the Palmer River Watershed and will reimburse the AG’s Office for costs incurred in bringing the case. 

 

These cases were handled by Assistant Attorneys General Emily Mitchell Field and Nora Chorover of the AG Office’s Environmental Protection Division. 

沒有留言: