EPA Orders C&H Sugar to Comply with Clean Water Act, Protect Carquinez Strait and the Bay
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated an Administrative Order on Consent with the C&H Sugar Company Inc. in response to Clean Water Act violations at the company's sugar refinery in Crockett, California. The order targets the plant's unauthorized discharges of pollutants into the Carquinez Strait, a body of water that connects with the San Francisco Bay, in direct violation of the Clean Water Act.
"With this order, EPA is ensuring that C&H Sugar will act to protect the Bay and prevent further unauthorized discharges into the Carquinez Strait," said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. "With our state partners at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board we will continue to enforce the Clean Water Act, thereby defending public health and the environment."
The C&H refinery in Crockett receives raw cane sugar from ships that dock at the facility. During unloading, loose raw sugar was discharged to the Carquinez Strait on at least three occasions in violation of federal law. Sugary wastewater can be high in Biological Oxygen Demand, which can rapidly deplete dissolved oxygen when discharged into water bodies and thus endanger fish and other aquatic life. Other violations include failure to properly operate and maintain a wastewater system, failure to implement the company's Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan fully, and violations of the refinery's effluent limitations.
As a result of the order, C&H has modified its sugar offloading system and will demonstrate to the EPA that the new system adequately prevents discharges into the Carquinez Strait. C&H Sugar will also update its Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan and sugar management practices.
Read more on EPA’s Clean Water Act and EPA Enforcement webpages.
For more information on reporting possible violations of environmental laws and regulations, visit EPA’s enforcement reporting website.
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