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EPA Issues Complaint Against Hudson, Mass. Company Over Clean Water Violations

Release Date: 10/03/2003
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office, 617-918-1008

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has issued an administrative complaint against Hudson Lock, LLC of Hudson, Mass. for violations of the Clean Water Act.

According to EPA’s complaint, the company was discharging wastewater to the town’s publicly-owned treatment works containing zinc in concentrations well above the legal limit. EPA’s complaint also alleges that Hudson Lock failed to apply in a timely manner for a storm water discharge permit and failed to conduct all of its required site compliance evaluations and monitoring once the facility did obtain permit coverage.

As part of the administrative process EPA will be proposing a penalty which will reflect the seriousness of the violations. The statutory maximum penalty for the alleged violations is $137,500.

“Protecting and preserving our nation’s clean water is a central part of EPA’s job,” said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator for EPA’s New England Office. “We’re encouraged that Hudson Lock has taken steps to come into full compliance.”

Hudson Lock owns and operates a key and lock manufacturing facility. Hudson Lock’s discharges of zinc periodically exceeded, by significant amounts, the limits applicable to metal finishers nationwide, from at least December 1998 to May 2003.

The company also failed to apply for a storm water permit in a timely manner and implement an adequate storm water pollution prevention plan to prevent storm water from carrying pollution off of the company’s property to adjacent property or the town’s storm water drainage system, which ultimately discharges to nearby Bruce’s Pond. During the course of Hudson Lock’s day-to-day activities, its industrial pollutants have the potential to come into contact with storm water.

Hudson Lock has taken steps to reduce its zinc discharges, has applied for a storm water permit and has developed an adequate storm water pollution prevention plan