Operators of a polymer plant in Louisiana have agreed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice to pay $365,500 in civil penalties for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The Region 6 office of the EPA in Dallas announced the agreement was reached with the Certain Teed Lake Charles Polymer Plant at Westlake, Louisiana.
The settlement requires the largest civil penalty payment under the Safe Drinking Water Act by a public water system with respect to drinking water in the state of Louisiana.
“This is an excellent example of EPA and Louisiana working together to ensure compliance with safe drinking water standards,” said EPA Region 6 Compliance Assurance and Enforcement Director Cheryl Seager. “We are committed to protecting the public health and will not hesitate to hold companies accountable who refuse to comply with the law.”
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. alleges that CertainTeed violated drinking water treatment requirements under the SDWA by failing to correct significant deficiencies identified during a Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) sanitary survey of CertainTeed’s public water system located at the Westlake plant. These violations included, among other things, failure to provide approved and permitted drinking water at its facility for its employees and failure to monitor and test for contaminants that can result in adverse health effects. Despite numerous enforcement efforts by both EPA and the state of Louisiana, including letters from LDH, a joint inspection by LDH and EPA, and an EPA administrative order, CertainTeed took over four years to address the significant deficiencies identified in the survey.
As a result of state and federal enforcement efforts, CertainTeed has completed actions to correct the issues alleged in the Complaint and has achieved compliance with the SDWA and the rules to ensure the safety of drinking water served to its employees and facility visitors by public water providers like CertainTeed.
CertainTeed Corporation manufactures exterior and interior building products. CertainTeed Corporation’s Westlake, Louisiana facility manufactures polymer products, including vinyl siding.