Company fined over water violations

Industrial Plating Corp (IPC) of Mukilteo has been fined $19,500 (£12,800) by the Washington Department of Ecology (WDE) for failing to protect water quality. IPC delayed several measures to stop wastewater released by the manufacturing facility from affecting the sewage treatment plant and the water quality of the area.

IPC are subject to a water quality permit, which limits the amount of certain components they can release in their wastewater and subsequently into Mukilteo's sewer system. Between May and December of 2011 IPC failed to monitor their output of cadmium, lead, silver and cyanide that was discharged in their wastewater. High levels of metals in wastewater are able to build up in the aquatic food chain, as well as being almost impossible to remove once introduced to soil. Such high levels of metal in the wastewater released by IPC endangered the operation of the Mukilteo Water and Wastewater District's sewage treatment plant.

The company was also consistently late in submitting monthly pollutant level reports from May 2011 to February 2012, as well as late in producing plans for controlling sudden high-volume discharges, managing toxic organic compounds and preventing and responding to spills.

Geral Shervey, acting regional supervisor for Ecology's water quality programme, said: "We believe these violations showed disregard for their permit. We appreciate IPC's more recent return to compliance, because in doing so the company operates in a way that protects Puget Sound and the local treatment plant."

This is not the first time that IPC has been fined by the WDE for failure to take proper precautions when dealing with its manufacturing waste. In 2009 IPC was fined $101,000 when a 50,000-gallon tank of caustic material collapsed at its Seattle plant. The caustic material ended up spilling into a car park and street after the wooden tank it was stored in broke apart.