DuPont fined $59K by EPA

Kinston’s DuPont plant has paid a fine of $59,000 to settle water-quality violations that the federal Environmental Protection Agency says the polymer fiber manufacturer committed between July 2008 and March 2009.

An investigation conducted by the EPA found that during those nine months the DuPont facility at 4693 N.C. 11 North discharged greater than allowable levels of mercury into the Neuse River in violation of the Clean Water Act.

A state-issued permit limits the factory to a daily maximum mercury discharge of 0.012 micrograms per liter. Davina Marraccini, a spokeswoman with the EPA, said Tuesday that from July 2008 to March 2009 the facility averaged a daily maximum mercury discharge of 0.104 micrograms per liter, which is 8½ times the limit.

In a statement issued to The Free Press on Tuesday, DuPont spokesman Terry Gooding said mercury leaked into the river from a concrete pipe that had separated at several joints due to settling over time. “The separations allowed groundwater with low levels of mercury to enter the storm water piping system,” he said.

Gooding said DuPont unknowingly inherited the problem when it re-acquired the Kinston facility in July 2008 from Unifi.

“The EPA had originally notified the former site owner about the violation and the former site owner notified DuPont after the re-acquisition,” he said.

As soon as administrators at DuPont’s Kinston plant learned about the problem, they immediately began working with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources — even before receiving the notice of violation from the EPA — to take the necessary steps to identify the source and mitigate it, Gooding said.

DuPont faced a maximum penalty of $297,500. Clean Water Act violations made before February 2009 can incur a maximum fine of $32,500 per month and $37,500 per month after that.

Marraccini said a consent agreement reached between DuPont attorney Patricia McGee and Wilda Cobb, associate regional counsel for the EPA, set the fine.

DuPont paid the fine and complied with an administrative order made by the EPA requiring DuPont to submit a corrective action plan to prevent further violations, Marraccini said.

Gooding said DuPont completed the necessary corrective actions by August 2009.

Reports by the Environmental Protection Agency state mercury contains neurotoxin, a chemical that can adversely affect pregnant women and a baby's growing brain and nervous system.

Impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills have been seen in pregnant women and children exposed to mercury in the womb, the study states.

Gooding said DuPont understands the severity of mercury side effects.

“We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously,” he said.

Wesley Brown can be reached at 2525-559-1075 or wbrown@freedomenc.com.