St. Paul, Minn. - After failing to meet a variety of pollution control requirements for its industrial wastewater treatment since January 2002, the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative processing plant near Renville has agreed to make improvements and pay a $280,700 civil penalty to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
Alleged violations occurred when the facility discharged treated wastewater into County Ditch 37 instead of County Ditch 45 as required in its permit, and allegedly allowed untreated or partially-treated wastewater to escape into County Ditch 37, tile lines and adjacent property. Other alleged violations included overfilling of wastewater treatment ponds, failure to report accidental or emergency discharges, and exceeding water and air pollution limits.
Some of the penalty amount stems from a 2002 Renville County District Court settlement in which the co-op agreed to a number of requirements addressing air and water quality, solid waste and aboveground storage tanks. The earlier settlement included civil penalties and restitution costs totaling $215,000. In December 2004, the co-op received a five-year wastewater permit aimed at resolving numerous issues with the facility and 11 of the company's remote beet piling sites. The permit changed the discharge point from County Ditch 37 to County Ditch 45 in order to help improve water quality in County Ditch 37, which leads to East Fork Beaver Creek.
The creek is on the state's list of impaired waters for aquatic recreation and aquatic life due to fecal coliform bacteria and turbidity. The current agreement sets several deadlines for improvements in the co-op's wastewater treatment system. It requires regular reports on the level of wastewater in the holding ponds, and monitoring and notification of any discharge that potentially could cause water pollution. The co-op has paid the penalty and implemented all corrective actions required to date. The company must also hire an environmental consultant to audit its environmental management system.
A report and action plan is due May 1, 2007. In a previous agreement in 1999, the co-op received an $82,500 civil penalty and accepted requirements designed to resolve violations including air quality, water quality, solid waste and hazardous waste violations at the processing plant.
The agreement, called a "stipulation agreement" by the MPCA, is one of the tools used to achieve compliance with environmental laws. When calculating penalties, the MPCA takes into account how seriously the violation affected the environment, whether it is a first time or repeat violation and how promptly the violation was reported to appropriate authorities. It also attempts to recover the calculated economic benefit gained by failure to comply with environmental laws in a timely manner. For a comprehensive list of enforcement actions by the MPCA, go to the agency Web site at www.pca.state.mn.us/newscenter/enforcement.html.
