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EPA Cites Salisbury for Clean Water Act Violations

Release Date: 1/25/2001
Contact Information: Roy Seneca, (215) 814-5567

Roy Seneca, (215) 814-5567

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cited the city of Salisbury for three Clean Water Act violations that involve excessive discharge of silver and other pollutants from the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

In this enforcement action, which is being conducted in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Environment, EPA is seeking $137,500 in penalties. The alleged violations by Salisbury include:

• discharging excessive amounts of metals such as silver into the Wicomico River.
• failing to take sufficient enforcement action against Perdue Farms for wastewater treatment violations.
• allowing raw sewage to flow directly into the Wicomico River watershed.

Salisbury allegedly violated its permit by discharging too much silver from its treatment plant. Silver is a wastewater byproduct of photo processing and electronics manufacturing. The Salisbury treatment plant was not designed to remove metals from the water. Salisbury is responsible for regulating industrial users by setting limits on the type and amount of pollutants that can be sent to the city’s water treatment facility.

Silver in water can kill beneficial algae in the treatment process, disrupting the plant’s ability to remove pollutants. Water with dissolved silver can kill fish eggs, cause skin irritations to swimmers and accumulate in tissues of humans and aquatic life, causing discoloration and organ damage.

EPA’s enforcement action also alleges that Salisbury has not sufficiently responded to violations by Perdue’s poultry processing plant, which was discharging excess pollutants to the city’s treatment facility. In lieu of action from the city, the Maryland Department of the Environment is seeking $40,000 in penalties from Perdue.

The alleged overflow violations from the city’s treatment plant stemmed from power outages and mechanical failures that caused pumps to malfunction and led to raw sewage flowing directly into the Wicomico River.

The city is entitled to a hearing to contest the charges.