|
Three companies will pay a total $500,000 civil penalty after an Arizona treatment plant released an industrial chemical into public drinking water, U.S. EPA and the Justice Department announced today.
Motorola Inc., Siemens Corp. and GlaxoSmithKline agreed to the settlement after tricholoroethylene (TCE) from the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund site in Scottsdale contaminated drinking water in October 2007 and January 2008.
The companies are responsible for the Miller Road Treatment Facility, which pumps and treats groundwater contaminated by TCE. Two system failures there led to contamination exceeding the federal limit, 5 parts per billion, in the drinking water system.
"These three companies failed to properly treat groundwater for TCE at the site and further failed to alert proper authorities about the release despite being under an agreement to do both," Assistant Attorney General Ronald Tenpas said in a statement.
TCE was first discovered in water wells in the area in 1981. Since 2003, EPA has required Motorola, Siemens and GlaxoSmithKline -- which operate in the area and use TCE to clean parts -- to pay for the cleanup.
Since the system failures, Arizona American Water Co., which operates the Miller Road Treatment Facility for the companies, has upgraded the plant, adding a 24-hour operator and new control panels and alarms. The plant now undergoes daily water sampling, and the most contaminated well is no longer used.
Paula Thornton-Greear, a Motorola spokeswoman, said the three companies do not admit liability for the allegations in the government's complaint. "While we had strong defenses to all of the alleged violations," she said, "we believed that resolving the complaint served our overarching goal of putting the recent issues involving the [Miller Road Treatment Facility] behind us and working in cooperation with regulatory officials for the continued safe and effective remediation of the [North Indian Bend Wash] Superfund site."
Representatives of Siemens and GlaxoSmithKline did not return calls for comment.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed