The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered a Redwood City, Calif. company, Seaport Refining & Environmental, to immediately correct violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
The EPA alleges that Seaport failed to correctly manage toxic wastes in its wastewater before sending it to the local sewage treatment system. The company accepts and treats wastewater generated by local industries.
The company is required to comply with the order by correcting the violations and submitting documentation to the EPA by July 30, or face fines of up to $32,500 per day.
"Sewage treatment plants are vulnerable to the effects of toxic industrial wastewater discharges into the sewers," said Alexis Strauss, the director of the EPA's water division in San Francisco. "Local plants can malfunction if inadequately treated chemicals are sent through these systems."
The EPA determined that the company has not been correctly managing liquid wastes that contain oil, metals and organic solvents before discharging these wastes to the sewage treatment system. The company also failed to adequately collect samples of wastewater and failed to submit monitoring data and other required records to the agency.
Source: EPA
