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EPA Cites Lilly del Caribe for Clean Water Act Violations; Seeks $137,500 in Penalties

Release Date: 04/05/2000
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(#00053) San Juan, Puerto Rico – Lilly Del Caribe was cited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violations of the Clean Water Act, the Agency announced today. EPA cited the company for an unauthorized discharge of condensed cooling water, failure to properly maintain its facility and failure to comply with certain monitoring and reporting requirements. The Agency is seeking compliance and a $137,500 penalty for the violations. Lilly del Caribe has a permit under the Clean Water Act, called a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, to discharge wastewater from its Mayaguez, Puerto Rico facility into the Río Grande de Añasco. The permit limits the amount and type of pollutants that can be contained in the storm water discharges and requires the company to monitor the discharge and follow best management practices to prevent the discharge of pollutants from the facility into the river. "It’s very important that facilities adhere to their NPDES permits, because the permits are designed to protect water quality by limiting the amount of pollutants that a facility can discharge into out waterways," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Regional Administrator. "The facility conditions can make a difference in how well a permittee can meet its permit conditions. In fact, many of the violations that we identified at Lilly del Caribe were due to bad housekeeping and certainly could have been relatively easily prevented." A June 1999 EPA inspection revealed that the facility had not taken proper steps to prevent unauthorized discharges from a broken pipe, which was leaking condensed cooling water into a storm drain. In addition, the facility was poorly maintained, with discarded equipment exposed to precipitation that could run off into surrounding waters; a broken dike; pumping pits that needed to be cleaned; and two waste containers that did not have secondary containment to contain any potential leaks. Subsequent review of discharge monitoring reports from the facility revealed also that it had failed to monitor or had inadequately monitored its discharges for various intermittent periods between August 1997 and November 1999. Lilly del Caribe was previously cited by EPA for violations of the Clean Water Act. On September 24, 1999, EPA cited the company for a June 24, 1999 discharge of untreated sewage into Los Frailes Creek from its facility in Carolina, Puerto Rico. This case was settled when, under a Consent Agreement and Consent Order, effective March 17, 2000, Lilly del Caribe paid a $3,600 penalty. On February 2, 1999, EPA issued a Complaint against Lilly Del Caribe for violations of the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act for failing to immediately notify the appropriate authorities about a September 21-22, 1998 release of propionic anhydride that occurred from its Mayagüez facility into the environment. Lilly del Caribe has reached an agreement with EPA to settle this case and agreed to pay $39,000 for these violations.