$7.5-Million Alcoa Pollution Fine
Aluminum Co. of America pleaded guilty Thursday to state pollution charges and agreed to pay $7.5 million in criminal and civil penalties.
The aluminum company giant was charged with illegal handling of PCBs and other hazardous wastes at its smelting and fabricating plant at Massena, N.Y., on the St. Lawrence River separating the United States and Canada.
Pittsburgh-based Alcoa agreed to pay a $3.75-million criminal fine and a $3.75-million civil penalty.
“Alcoa has a clear environmental policy which was not followed in this instance,” Alcoa Chairman Paul O’Neill said in a statement.
New York State Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams said an investigation found that while preparing to install a drainage system in 1989, Alcoa excavated 33 railroad cars full of PCB-contaminated soil, then left the soil piled nearby for more than 90 days.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, have been linked to cancer and banned by the federal government.
The company also illegally dumped caustic and acidic waste solutions down manholes at the plant, Abrams said.
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