Rancho Bernardo
The Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn its complaint against Northern Telecom Electronics, a Rancho Bernardo firm that had faced a $20,000 fine for allegedly violating federal Clean Water Act guidelines by dumping 3,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide into city sewers last April.
EPA spokeswoman Lois Grunwald in San Francisco said Wednesday that the spill was not as dangerous as the company first thought when it voluntarily reported the incident.
“The original complaint was based on information they themselves provided to us, and there were some errors in their data,” she said. Among other things, the waste-water discharge didn’t contain the high levels of acidity that were first believed, and the waste did not upset sewage treatment at the Escondido plant that treats Rancho Bernardo’s sewage.
She also noted that the company, which manufactures computer chips for telecommunications purposes, has corrected the deficiencies that led to the spill.
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