Sun Valley : Firm Fined for Clean Water Act Violation

A Sun Valley electroplating firm was fined $60,000 for violating the Clean Water Act by discharging chemical waste water that contained excessive amounts of harmful toxic pollutants into the city’s sewage system, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The federal government reached an agreement with Hawker Pacific Inc. of Sun Valley, and a consent decree was lodged in U.S. District Court on Friday, EPA spokesman Dave Schmidt said.

In compliance with the EPA, the company has already installed a vacuum evaporation system that will eliminate the discharge of industrial waste water.

Schmidt said an added bonus of the new system is that it recycles waste water.

In explaining the violation, Schmidt said there are certain chemicals in industrial waste water that cannot be treated effectively by sewage plants, and that go straight into the waterways.

For that reason the EPA sets limits on the chemicals that can be discharged by industries into the sewer system.

“Hawker had been exceeding that limit since 1990,” Schmidt said.

According to the Clean Water Act, companies are obligated to treat the water to remove pollutants and meet standards before discharging the wastes into the city’s sewer treatment facility, the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Cyanide and heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, nickel and silver were among the chemicals contained in the industrial waste water discharged by Hawker Pacific, Schmidt said.