EPA Orders Tonawanda Coke to Comply with Clean Water Act
08/27/2010 - The U.S. EPA has ordered the Tonawanda Coke to comply with its Clean Water Act permit. Among other violations, Tonawanda Coke is discharging industrial wastewater containing cyanide in excess of its permit limits into the town of Tonawanda’s sanitary sewer system.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered the Tonawanda Coke Corp. (TCC) to comply with its Clean Water Act permit. Among other violations, TCC is discharging industrial wastewater containing cyanide in excess of its permit limits into the town of Tonawanda’s sanitary sewer system, which ultimately discharges into the Niagara River from the town’s wastewater treatment facility.
EPA is also ordering TCC to properly monitor and treat the wastewater that results from the coke-making process. Under EPA’s order, TCC is required to complete the overdue installation of pollution controls, improve monitoring, and provide additional information about operations at the facility.
In 2009, EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) conducted a comprehensive series of inspections of the Tonawanda Coke facility to determine its compliance with federal laws and regulations.
More than six months later, TCC has completed some work, including replacing its corroded tank, but it has still not fully complied with the December 2009 order and has reported continued and additional violations of the pollution limits set in its industrial user permit. EPA is issuing a new administrative order requiring TCC to complete the outstanding measures required by the original order, perform additional repairs and improvements, better monitor its processes and effluent, and provide additional information to EPA and NYSDEC.
Under this new order, TCC must comply with the original administrative order, certify in writing which of the items have been corrected, and complete all outstanding items.
TCC also must comply with the cyanide limits in its permit, improve its best management practices, which are intended to control water pollution at the site, install a flow meter for process wastewater in the correct location, conduct additional auditing to identify any cross connections between process and non-process wastewater sewers, certify that no process wastewater is getting into the cooling and storm systems, install a coal pile runoff treatment system to ensure compliance with effluent limits, and ensure that the required pollution controls are in fact installed and working properly.
EPA is insisting that TCC take immediate steps to meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act and New York State’s air pollution plan. The facility recently completed required air testing and results are forthcoming. The company has also violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in the improper handling of its coal tar sludge, and EPA will ensure that these violations are corrected as well.
The Agency is also following-up on its recent requirement under the Clean Air Act’s General Duty Clause, that TCC investigate and fix recent mishaps that took place at the facility due to power and equipment failures.
