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Guaynabo Drinking Water Investigation Turns Up Violations at Five Facilities; EPA Orders Facilities to Obtain Storm Water Permits; Seeks $ 296,930 in Penalties

Release Date: 08/25/2000
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(#00162) San Juan, Puerto Rico – Despite the efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist companies in complying with storm water regulations, three Guaynabo-area facilities -- Coatings Incorporated & Company, Forto Chemical Corporation and J.S. Chem Corporation -- have been cited for violating the regulations. They face a total of $ 296,930 in penalties for their violations. All three companies were cited for not having storm water permits and for not updating pollution prevention plans to meet permit requirements. In addition, EPA has ordered two other facilities – Besst Chemicals, Inc. and PCI Printed Components – to comply with storm water requirements. The violations were discovered during a series of ongoing EPA inspections of 56 facilities in the Los Frailes and Minillas Industrial Parks. The inspections are part of a broad investigation into the cause of last month’s contamination of the Guaynabo drinking water system. The stormwater violations are not necessarily associated with the cause of the contamination of Guaynabo’s drinking water, and the search for the source still continues. However, EPAs inspections are intended to help prevent contamination of the Guaynabo River, from which drinking water is drawn, by providing assistance to facilities to help them comply, or if necessary, by taking enforcement action to enforce storm water regulations. "These facilities did not have storm water permits, which contain requirements to prevent pollutants from getting into storm water and local waters," Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator noted. "In this case, the facilities are located near a water body that serves as a drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans. We have not pinpointed the source of the contamination that tainted the Guaynabo drinking water and we continue to investigate." EPA has ordered all of the facilities to come into compliance and is proposing $78,490 in penalties for Coatings Incorporated & Company; $137,500 in penalties for Forto Chemical Corporation; and $80,940 in penalties for J.S. Chem Corporation. The penalties were calculated based on the length and gravity of the violations. In addition, the Agency plans to assess penalties in the near future against several other facilities for similar violations. In November 1990, EPA put forth storm water regulations under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program of the federal Clean Water Act and has since issued four storm water general permits, which cover more than 1,000 industrial facilities and construction sites in Puerto Rico. The Agency is doing its part to help facilities comply with the storm water regulations. Since 1991, EPA has sponsored, on a yearly basis, storm water seminars in Puerto Rico and has provided compliance assistance to hundreds of regulated facilities. This spring, about 200 people attended two EPA seminars in San Juan and in Mayaguez. For information about future seminars in Puerto Rico, contact EPA’s Caribbean Environmental Protection Division at (787) 729-6951.