The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and Seneca Foods Corporation (“SFC”) entered into an August 14th Consent Agreement and Final Order (“CAFO”) addressing alleged violations of certain Clean Water Act pretreatment requirements. See DOCKET NO. CWA-10-2015-0122.
The CAFO states that SFC operates a food processing facility in Payette, Idaho.
The SFC facility allegedly discharges processed wastewater into the City of Payette municipal wastewater treatment plant (i.e., public owned treatment works [“POTW”]). Further, the SFC facility is stated to be an “industrial user” as defined in 40 CFR § 403.3(j) and therefore subject to the pretreatment requirements set forth in the applicable federal regulations.
The federal Clean Water Act National Pretreatment program identifies specific requirements that apply to all industrial users or nondomestic sources of wastewater entering into a POTW. All POTWs are responsible for controlling their industrial users to prevent interference and pass-through. Such control includes the ability to ensure influent into their treatment plant is compliant with the relevant requirements. However, EPA retains the authority to enforce the Clean Water Act POTW pretreatment requirements in certain circumstances pursuant to the applicable sections of the statute.
The CAFO alleges that EPA conducted an inspection at the SFC facility in 2014 and obtained discharge data. The data allegedly indicated that SFC discharged wastewater with a pH lower than 5.0 to the POTW at various times on 112 days between the months of January 2011 and November 2014. The facility is stated to be subject to Section 403.5(d)(2) which prohibits discharges with a pH lower than 5.0 into a POTW.
SFC neither admits nor denies the CAFO’s allegations.
SFC agrees to pay a voluntary civil penalty of $64,000.
Click here to download a copy of the CAFO.
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