EMD Millipore settles Clean Water Act violations
The company will upgrade its on-site wastewater treatment system to comply with the industrial wastewater discharge permit and prevent pre-treatment violations.
It must provide annual training to staff responsible for CWA compliance, do wastewater sampling and analysis and submit quarterly reports to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
EMD Millipore’s manufacturing facility in Jaffrey, New Hampshire produces water filtration devices and discharges wastewater into Jaffrey’s publicly owned treatment works.
It generates industrial process wastewater containing pollutants including ammonia, total suspended solids (TSS), hydrogen ion concentration (pH), and oxygen demanding pollutants, including carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (cBOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).
The facility’s on-site wastewater treatment plant treats and reduces the concentration of organic solvents (ethanol, isopropyl alcohol and propylene glycol).
The settlement resolves allegations of Clean Water Act pre-treatment violations, including pass through and interference violations at the Jaffrey treatment works.
“MilliporeSigma will continue to work closely with the EPA and Department of Justice to implement a comprehensive treatment plan to ensure that all requirements are met and appropriate remedial actions are put into place to effectively monitor effluent water quality and ensure that these types of violations do not occur in the future,” said the firm in a statement.
Based on EMD Millipore’s compliance monitoring record, on occasions between February 2011 and March 2015 the firm violated certain regulations, its permit and the town’s sewer use ordinance.
The Consent Decree, in the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire, has a 30-day public comment period and needs approval by the federal court.
It is the result of federal action brought by the Department of Justice on behalf of the EPA.
Merck is based in Germany but in the US and Canada it operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.
