Environmental Law

Another Clean Water Act Conviction

By Walter James

On September 4, 2008, Comprehensive Environmental Solutions, Inc. (?CESI?), pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Michigan for violations of the Clean Water Act and for making false statements in connection with illegal discharges of untreated liquid wastes from its facility.  CESI is a Nevada corporation which operates an industrial waste treatment and disposal facility in Dearborn, Michigan.  According to the plea agreement and other court records, CESI?s facility had a permit to treat liquid waste brought to the facility through a variety of processes and then discharge it to the Detroit sanitary sewer system.  The facility contained twelve large above-ground tanks capable of holding more than 10,000,000 gallons of liquid industrial wastes.

During the period from April 2001 to June 2002, facility employees frequently bypassed the facility?s treatment system in order to discharge untreated liquid wastes directly to the sanitary sewer system.  At the time, the facility had no operable equipment to treat incoming liquid wastes and the 10,000,000 gallon tank farm was full, with virtually no capacity to store additional liquid wastes.  Nonetheless, the facility continued to accept about 13,000,000 gallons of liquid industrial waste-streams for purported treatment and disposal.  Because the facility had no space available for this additional waste, nor equipment to treat it, CESI discharged to the sanitary sewer all of this untreated liquid waste in violation of the Clean Water Act, the facility?s permit and the consent order under which the facility operated.

As part of its guilty plea, CESI agreed to pay a fine of $600,000.00, plus an additional $150,000.00 to fund a community service project for the benefit, preservation and restoration of the environment and ecosystems in the waters adjoining the Rouge River and the Detroit River.  In addition to accepting responsibility today for its past misconduct, CESI, which is under new management, has taken a number of steps during the last several years to install new equipment and systems to treat liquid industrial waste before it is discharged to the sewer. 

As a condition of probation, CESI has also agreed to abide by the terms of a consent order with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for the cleanup of the facility, at an estimated cost of about $1,500,000.00, which includes the proper disposal of the liquid waste previously stored in the facility?s tank farm.  CESI has further agreed to develop, adopt, implement and fund an environmental management system/compliance plan at its facility, which will include an annual program to train employees on environmental compliance and ethics to ensure that all CESI employees understand the requirements imposed by the facility?s discharge permit.

More later.

As always, feel free to call me or e-mail me with any questions at walter.james@jamespllc.com.

WDJiii

Full post as published by Environmental Crimes Blog on September 10, 2008 (boomark / email).