While reading this post, keep in mind that the fact that there were exceedences of permit limitations is not the crime; rather, it is the manipulation of the data and the falsification of the reporting.
On September 3, 2008, Johnson Matthey Inc. (the owner and operator of a gold and silver refining facility in Salt Lake City) pleaded guilty to one felony violation of the Clean Water Act for failing to properly report wastewater discharges from the facility. As a part of the plea agreement, Johnson Matthey agreed to pay a fine of $3,000,000.00. Sentencing has been set for December 2, 2008, at 2:30 p.m.
The former plant manager and former general manager also both pleaded guilty to making false statements and were then sentenced. Former plant manager Paul Greaves and former general manager John McKelvie admitted to one felony violation for making false statements in relation to requirements for reporting pollutants under the Clean Water Act. Greaves was sentenced to one year probation, a $500.00 fine and 20 hours community service and McKelvie was sentenced to one year probation, a $1,000.00 fine and 20 hours community service.
The case arose out of an USEPA investigation into the company’s discharge monitoring reports, which are required under the CWA. As part of the refining process, pollutants such as selenium, accumulated in the wastewater. The company’s wastewater was treated at several steps in the facility to remove selenium before being discharged to a sewer leading to Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility (“Central Valley”), where it was subsequently treated and discharged to the Jordan River.
The investigation uncovered that from approximately 1996 through 2002, the company had difficulty consistently limiting selenium discharges to meet its permit limit. An internal audit conducted by the company’s auditor in 1999 discovered that the facility had exceeded its permit limit for selenium and that employees had screened samples before submitting them to an outside laboratory for analysis. The auditor warned the general manager that this violated the terms of the company’s industrial discharge permit, which required that samples be representative of the reported discharge. In January 2000, to avoid disclosing true concentrations of the selenium-contaminated wastewater discharged from the facility, Greaves and McKelvie again screened the samples they reported to Central Valley by analyzing in-house the selenium concentrations and then submitting samples with low selenium concentrations to an outside laboratory for eventual reporting to Central Valley.
As always, feel free to call me or e-mail me with any questions at walter.james@jamespllc.com.
WDJiii
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