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Companies Fined for Not Curbing Runoff of Polluted Storm Water ;EPA Cites Four Major Corporations As It Continues to Reach Out to Facilities Throughout Puerto Rico to Help Them Comply

Release Date: 05/18/2000
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(#00099) San Juan, Puerto Rico -- When it rains, it pours and rain is a problem for four major corporations that were cited for violating federal storm water regulations. The Danbury Pharmacal P.R., Inc., Petroleum Chemical Corporation, Rhone Poulenc Rorer Puerto Rico and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Company were all recently cited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because they did not apply for storm water permits, which would have required them to develop and implement Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans to reduce contamination of nearby waterways from storm water runoff. Now, the companies face fines of up to $27,500, and must apply for the permits and develop the plans. Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Regional Administrator, spoke recently to participants at an EPA workshop designed to help companies in Puerto Rico comply with the storm water regulations. "We can’t clean up our waters by just controlling pollution from ‘point sources,’ such as industrial process wastewater and discharges from municipal sewage treatment plants. We have to control more diffuse sources, such as storm water runoff, which impair water quality," Ms. Fox noted after the workshop. "These storm water  permits are critical because they require facilities to minimize polluting storm water runoff." In November 1990, EPA promulgated the 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. Last week, about 200 people attended two seminars held by EPA in San Juan on May 2 and in Mayaguez, on May 4. For information about future seminars in Puerto Rico, contact EPA’s Caribbean Environmental Protection Division at (787) 729-6951. Related story: https://www.epa.gov/r02earth/epd/9594.htm.