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Juneau to pay $36,793 for air and water violations

Release Date: 2/10/2005
Contact Information: Jim Corpuz
[email protected]
(206) 553-1213

February 10, 2005

The City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska will spend $36,793 to settle two complaints by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging the City violated the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act at its Douglas and Mendenhall Wastewater Treatment Plants.

The EPA alleges that the City’s Mendenhall Wastewater Treatment Plant used and stored large quantities of chlorine and sulfur dioxide – both considered to be hazardous substances – but failed to file a Risk Management Plan as required by the Clean Air Act.

The Risk Management Plan is a tool to aid the facility and local emergency responders in protecting the public from accidental chemical releases. Chlorine and sulfur dioxide are both very hazardous chemicals that, if accidentally released into the environment, could severely affect the surrounding community in Juneau, Alaska.

The regulation which the EPA alleges the treatment plant violated is designed to reduce the risk of chemical accidents and to minimize the effects of any accidental releases.

The EPA also found that the City failed to develop a Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP) for its Douglas Plant. Under the terms of its EPA-issued pollution discharge permit, Juneau was required to develop an LTCP by December 27, 2002. Without an LTCP, there is no schedule to eliminate the combined sewer overflow outfalls that allow untreated wastewater to be discharged to surface waters such as Gastineau Channel.

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Related Links:

Risk Management Plans (yosemite.epa.gov/oswer/ceppoweb.nsf/content/RMPS.htm)

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