Plating Firm Suits Mark EPA Drive to Clean Sewers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that federal charges filed against three Los Angeles-area electroplating firms it accuses of violating the Clean Water Act mark the opening of the second stage of an enforcement effort to rid sewers of toxic chemicals.

“These are the first cases of this kind filed in this district,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Butler said Wednesday.

The complaints allege that the firms failed to install the required pretreatment equipment and to implement adequate operation and maintenance controls. The EPA is also seeking a court order to require prompt abatement of the pollution and compliance with the Clean Water Act.

Butler said the three firms--Chemplate Corp. of Los Angeles, S&K; Plating Inc. and Superior Chrome Plating, both of Compton--were among “the more flagrant violators” and were thus singled out for tougher enforcement measures than the milder administrative actions applied against 36 other firms last October by the EPA and the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts.

“Prior efforts (at compliance) had met with no results, so we had no alternative other than to seek the penalties and get a court order to bring them into compliance,” Butler said.

The three were accused of flouting the federal Clean Water Act by discharging waste water containing such chemicals as cyanide and heavy metals directly in the sewer system.

If the three firms are found guilty, they could face fines of up to $10,000 a day for each day of violation. Under the Clean Water Act, the firms should have been in compliance as of April 27. That would mean fines to date could be as high as $2.2 million each. Butler said he would seek the maximum penalty.

Chemplate Vice President Harvey Radford said Wednesday that the EPA action came as a surprise. “We thought we were in compliance all the way through and were doing our best to meet standards,” he said. There was no immediate comment from the attorney for Superior Chrome Plating. A person answering the phone at S&K; Plating who said he was in charge would not be quoted by name.

Jay Kremer, head of the sanitation districts’ industrial waste section, said that based on waste water samples, Superior Chrome had at times discharged 30 times the allowable levels of cyanide and 20 times the allowable levels of cadmium. Kremer said S&K; at times discharged five times the allowable levels of cyanide and 10 times allowable zinc levels. He said Chemplate’s levels of allowable nickel were more than twice the legal limit.

Kremer said cyanide and heavy metals are toxic to the microorganisms at sewage treatment plants that feed off the waste to produce a sludge that is then separated from the water. The water, in turn, is purified and recycled for industrial and agricultural use as well as returned to the underground drinking water supply through percolation ponds.

EPA Statement

In a statement issued by her San Francisco office, EPA regional administrator Judith E. Ayres said, “The EPA cannot and will not allow violators to reap unjust economic gain from failure to control their pollution discharges.”

The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts previously said the cost for each company to install pretreatment equipment is about $60,000, plus $45,000 in annual operating costs.

Electroplating is the depositing of metallic coatings on various surfaces through the process of electrolysis. The process is widely used throughout industry to improve product resistance to corrosion or abrasion, to increase the dimension of worn or undersized parts and for decorative purposes. Automobile bumpers, for example, are coated with nickel and chromium through electroplating.