File photo
File photo
The Environmental Protection Agency, Justice Department and State of Texas have settled with the chemical company DuPont, which will pay $3.1 million in civil penalties in addition to $3.1 million paid in 2018 for a fatal plant explosion in La Porte and past violations of water and air standards.
“This settlement concludes EPA’s efforts since 2008 to address impacts to the environment at the La Porte site,” EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Assistant Administrator Susan Bodine said on its website. “Although DuPont’s chemical manufacturing facility never reopened after the 2014 explosion, there are other operations located on the DuPont-owned property. This settlement ensures both proper management of the wastes generated by those operations as well as the cleanup of contamination from past operations.”
The state agency represented in the settlement is the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
The La Porte explosion in 2014 spilled an estimated 24,000 pounds of the toxic chemical methyl mercaptan and killed four workers.
The settlement also resolves past toxic alleged violations of the Resource, Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Water and Air acts. The company was accused of failure to properly treat and store hazardous waste without proper permits, and failure to meet land disposal requirements. Added charges included failure to enact an oil spill prevention plan and to meet emission standards at a biological water treatment plant at the site.
That facility closed in 2016, though the company still operates a wastewater treatment facility on the property.
DuPont officials have pledged to do soil, sediment and groundwater testing that may have resulted from the closed chemical plant, and necessary residual cleanup where needed.
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