Schneider Electric USA will pay a penalty totaling more than $6.8 million for allegedly violating the terms of a 2002 court-approved Superfund consent decree during its cleanup at the Rodale Manufacturing Superfund Site located in Emmaus.
The violations resulted in uncontrolled emissions of air pollutants that can cause threats to public health and the environment.
“We will not tolerate violation of our consent decrees, especially where those violations can result in risks to public health, welfare and the environment” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin, in a Tuesday news release. “The significant penalty in this case shows that non-compliance with settlement requirements have serious consequences.”
The company will pay the largest Superfund stipulated penalty in EPA history, and the third largest stipulated penalty overall in EPA history. Ten percent of the penalty will be paid to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection,.
The Superfund consent decree to remove groundwater contamination at the site includes the following: a groundwater “pump and treat” system; groundwater monitoring; and air pollution controls to prevent harmful air emissions during the cleanup operations.
According to EPA and DEP, Schneider Electric USA was not operating the air pollution control portion as designed dating back to at least 2008. Schneider Electric addressed the problem in 2013 by replacing the groundwater treatment system.
The alleged violations involve the following:
Failure to maintain air pollution control equipment to collect and treat hazardous air pollutants including trichloroethylene and other volatile organic compounds;
Failure to alert EPA and DEP of its malfunctioning air pollution control equipment;
Failure to comply with Pennsylvania air pollution permitting regulations;Failure to provide records to agency officials
This site is subject to the federal Superfund law, formally known as the Comprehensive Environmental Responsibility, Compensation, and Liability Act.
It requires landowners, waste generators and waste transporters responsible for contaminating a Superfund site to clean up the site, or reimburse the government, or other parties for cleanup activities.
The site has a long history of electrical component manufacturing -- including electroplating, vapor degreasing and metal shaping activities
Rodale Manufacturing made plastic electrical wiring components in a former silk mill on the 1.8-acre property at Sixth and Minor streets in Emmaus. When Rodale operated the property, several wells were used to dispose of waste materials.
In 1975, the factory was taken over by a subsidiary of Square D Company. Square D identified Rodale's past disposal practices in March 1981.
The Rodale Manufacturing site was added to the Superfund list of the nation’s most contaminated sites and clean-up activities began in 1991.
Schneider purchased the Square D Company and currently produces electrical distribution equipment including circuit breakers, switches and infrared measurement devices.
As part of the $6,868,975 settlement, Schneider Electric has neither admitted nor denied liability for the alleged violations.
Clean-up has also included removal actions, or short-term cleanups, to address immediate threats to human health and the environment. In 1981, site operators removed wastes from three on-site disposal wells and disposed of the wastes in federally approved hazardous waste facilities.
Additional information about the Rodale Manufacturing Superfund Site is available .