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ENVIRONMENT '99 - Water Woes
Desperate to restore its environmental image, Waterbury's MacDermid rocked by new charges
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Business New Haven
8/9/1999
By: Fiona Phelan
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After diligent efforts to improve its environmental practices and its corporate image, a Waterbury-based chemical manufacturer is facing charges of environmental misconduct from the state's attorney general that could cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
On July 27, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed suit against MacDermid Inc. for alleged environmental permit and procedure violations. Some of the alleged violations date back to 1986, while others are said to have occurred in January and February of last year.
The suit, filed in Hartford Superior Court, seeks temporary and permanent injunctions requiring MacDermid to take "whatever action is necessary to remediate the violations," according to court documents.
The suit also seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day for each day prior to September 30, 1989 that MacDermid was in violation of state water pollution-control laws. Additionally, the state seeks fines of up to $25,000 per day for each day of violation for all the other infractions noted in the 38-page lawsuit.
"This has been a lengthy and complicated case," says Attorney General Blumenthal, "we're looking for substantial monetary damages.
"Over the periods stated in the suit, MacDermid engaged in a pattern of incomplete and inadequate environmental practices and procedures," says Blumenthal. "Their operations and record keeping violates the law and more seriously for a period of time the company risked the health and well-being of the people of the area."
The most serious of the lawsuits' allegations, according to Blumenthal, involves the alleged redirection of a discharge pipe used as part of a cyanide pre-treatment process at MacDermid's Freight Street facility in Waterbury. The suit states that "The redirection of the discharge from the cyanide strike/strip line constitutes an illegal bypass of the pre-treatment system."
MacDermid (NYSE: MRD) is a manufacturer of chemical and chemical-processing systems for the electronics, metal finishing and printing industries. Founded in 1922, the Waterbury company employs more than 1,800 people worldwide, including approximately 300 in Connecticut.
"We emphasize that we take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and we do everything we can to operate our business in compliance with both the letter and spirit of all state and federal environmental laws," says MacDermid Vice President David Erdman.
"We have always responded promptly to any concerns of the state Department of Environmental Protection and addressed any and all issues immediately.
"At this point we need to take our time to look at the suit and determine what permits and procedures are in question," he adds.
The company's attorney, James K. Roberston Jr., had no additional comment about the attorney general's lawsuit.
The state's suit comes at a time when MacDermid has taken a very proactive environmental stance aimed at not only improving the area where the company conducts its business but also at enhancing its damaged corporate image.
Although the company has a long history of philanthropy in the Waterbury area, MacDermid CEO Daniel H. Leever decided to establish a separate fund for community and youth-related projects: the Leever Foundation. The idea, says Erdman, was to establish a foundation that would operate in much the same way as the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven.
One of the first projects to receive funding from the Leever Foundation is a Naugatuck River restoration project. A $120,000 grant from the Leever Foundation pays for the next three years for a river steward to monitor and improve the river's habitat.
The river steward's work is just part of a $5 million effort between the DEP and Trout Unlimited, a non-profit angling and river environmental organization, to restore a 32-mile stretch of the Naugatuck River from Tingue Dam in Seymour upstream to the Thomaston Dam. Under the plan, seven dams between Seymour and Thomaston will be removed or breached. Three dams will be removed, while two others will be partially removed and the remaining two will get fish ladders, which allow fish to bypass a dam and travel upstream.
"We have always been very interested in the river," says Erdman of MacDermid. "Everybody knows that we had a spill several years ago, a spill that was accidental. We have a rapidly improving environmental record. The company has really buckled down and has an exemplary record for the past year."
According to Erdman, over the past five years the company has invested more than $1.5 million in improving environmental controls.
"MacDermid has really moved into an enlightened phase when it comes to the environment," says Albin Webber, president of the Naugatuck Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited. "They have become a real friend of the river and are investing a lot of resources in to doing what they can to help make the river a great place."
River steward Jonathan Ploski echoes Webber's sentiments. "MacDermid has taken a leadership role in what's going on with the river," he says. "The company has really cleaned up its act by both resolving issues at their own facility and by helping the river restoration effort."
MacDermid has been under investigation by the DEP for several years following a 1994 chemical spill into the Naugatuck River that killed thousands of fish. Since then, the company has been cited numerous times for water-pollution violations.
In 1997, the DEP accepted an informal settlement with MacDermid regarding the fish-killing incident. Instead of the more than $200,000 fine originally levied against the company by the DEP, MacDermid agreed to pay $70,000 into a DEP account for river-restoration efforts. Before the spill, MacDermid already had a history of environmental violations, having paid nearly $350,000 in past penalties.
Although the state settled its case against MacDermid, the spill remains the subject of a criminal investigation by both the U.S. Attorney's office and the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal division. Those investigations are continuing.
The new lawsuit stems from another complaint made by the DEP last year for alleged violations of water-discharge permits and other regulatory violations at MacDermid. The violations, according to DEP, are associated with the overall operations of MacDermid, from exceeding permit limitations to discharging without a permit.
Past investigations of MacDermid by DEP uncovered numerous violations, including but are not limited to: effluent limitation violations of their discharge permits; inadequate monitoring of discharges; improper operation of the company's wastewater treatment systems; failure to provide required notifications for equipment malfunctions or failures; failure to preserve and/or collect sample appropriately; failure to report analytical results appropriately; and discharging without the appropriate permits.
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