Hopefully, the consent order that the DEQ issues will have a requirement for some kind of pollution retention structure to be built. A portion of the fine could even go toward its purchase.
Chesapeake company fined for environmental offenses - again
Posted to: Business Chesapeake
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Coastal Precast Systems LLC was cited for improperly handling industrial runoff at its Chesapeake facility. (The Virginian-Pilot file photo)
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By Scott Harper
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 28, 2008
CHESAPEAKE
For the fourth time in eight years, a Chesapeake concrete company will pay a significant fine for state environmental violations at its plant near the Elizabeth River.
In the latest case, Coastal Precast Systems LLC was cited for some of the same problems in properly handling industrial runoff as in earlier state enforcement actions.
Such wastewater is considered a major pollution source today in the Elizabeth River and throughout the Chesapeake Bay. It carries land-based chemicals, petroleum, dirt and excessive nutrients to public waterways.
The concrete company this time was charged with poor housekeeping at its 35-acre facility on Yacht Drive in Chesapeake, with lax recordkeeping, with not following through on earlier environmental commitments, and with reporting zero discharges when state inspectors found the contrary.
Previously known as Concrete Precast Systems Inc. and Concrete Placement Systems Inc., the firm has agreed to pay $23,835 in state penalties for these and other infractions documented in 2006 and 2007.
The proposed settlement, released for public comment this week, still must be approved by the State Water Control Board in Richmond.
The concrete company paid a $10,800 fine in 2004 for similar storm-water violations, $9,450 in 2003 and $1,500 in 2001, according to case records compiled by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Calls to the company president, Paul Ogorchock, were not returned Monday.
But in correspondence earlier this year with state regulators, Ogorchock described the violations as minor, weather-related, rooted in employee error and miscommunication, and easily fixable.
Indeed, after the latest crackdown, the state noted during a recent inspection that the facility showed \"substantial improvement in overall cleanliness and housekeeping practices.\"
For example, an inspector wrote that some wastewater that used to be discharged into the Elizabeth River now was being recycled and reused at the facility.
Concrete dust that can blow into the river now was being suppressed with a new sprinkler system, according to the inspector, and piles of tar-covered waste poles and other debris had been removed from the premises.
The company manufactures noise-buffering walls and other precast structures. Wastewater from the industrial process is channeled to holding basins, where chips of concrete and other solids are supposed to settle to the bottom before the water is released into the river.
Problems with the state Department of Environmental Quality date to 1999, according to records. Since then, discharge limits were sometimes violated, monitoring reports left incomplete or not filed, and environmental managers were hired and fired.
During one testy exchange in 2002, a state environmental official inquiring about more shortcomings wrote a report detailing how an executive hung up the phone on him.
Just before hanging up, the executive complained that he \"didn\'t have time for this now\" and \"had to go now and earn a living,\" records show.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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