EPA fines Sims Metal plant in Redwood City $189,500 for polluting the Bay
Source: San Jose Mercury News
A federal agency announced Thursday it is fining Sims Metal Management $189,500 for dumping scrap metal debris from its recycling plant at the Port of Redwood City into the Bay.
The Sims plant annually shreds and exports more than 300,000 tons of scrap from cars, appliances and other metal products out of its 13-acre operation. A conveyor belt loads the materials onto ships bound for China and other countries.
During a 2011 inspection, the Environmental Protection Agency discovered that Sims' conveyer belt wasn't covered and metal dust blew off it into the waters below. When the agency tested the shoreline near the machinery it found high levels of toxic metals, including lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and zinc. Sims had been operating that way since at least the early 1990s, according to the EPA.
"More than 40 years after Congress passed the Clean Water Act, it is appalling that companies continue to pollute San Francisco Bay," Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's Pacific Southwest administrator, said in a written statement. "Taking strong enforcement action against polluters like Sims Metal is needed if we are to once and for all end illegal dumping into the fragile Bay ecosystem."
Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_26562689/epa-fines-sims-metal-plant-redwood-city-189
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