Chrysler to Settle Anti-Pollution Suit; Fined $1.5 Million

Chrysler Corp., in one of the largest fines ever imposed under the Clean Water Act, will pay $1.5 million to settle an anti-pollution suit, it was announced Thursday.

In a proposed consent decree to settle a civil suit brought by the Justice Department for the Environmental Protection Agency, the nation’s No. 3 auto maker did not admit violating any laws.

However, under terms of the decree entered in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Thursday, Chrysler agreed to pay the fine and to bring waste-water discharge systems at three plants into compliance with the law by July 15. Two of the plants are in Michigan; the third is in Delaware.

The suit alleged that the plants discharged “excessive amounts of metals” into public sewer systems.

The case represents “one of the largest civil penalty agreements ever negotiated under the Clean Water Act,” Assistant Atty. Gen. F. Henry Habicht II said.