Strategic Materials agrees to pay penalty for violating Clean Water Act.
The glass recycling company Strategic Materials Inc. has agreed to pay a penalty of $159,750 to settle an Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) claim that it violated the federal Clean Water Act. The claim states Stategic Materials allowed polluted storm water from its Franklin, Mass. facility to flow into nearby waters. Houston-based Strategic Materials operates a glass recycling facility, located at the edge of a tributary of the Charles River.
According to a press release, the EPA alleged that Strategic Materials initially failed to obtain permit coverage for its storm water discharges and failed to prepare a storm water pollution prevention plan. EPA also alleged that once Strategic Materials obtained permit coverage it discharged storm water from the facility in violation of various terms and conditions of EPA’s “multi-sector general permit for storm water discharges associated with industrial activity.”
Since the inspection, the EPA says Strategic Materials has begun to comply with the federal law. The company revised its storm water pollution prevention plan, improved the design and implementation of control measures that minimize pollutant discharges, and began regularly performing the required facility inspections and outfall assessments.
The Clean Water Act requires industrial facilities to have controls in place to minimize pollutants from being discharged with storm water into nearby waterways. Each site must have a storm water pollution prevention plan that sets guidelines and best management practices that the company will follow to prevent runoff from being contaminated by pollutants.