A Chattanooga manufacturer caught dumping into Chattanooga Creek agreed to spend $100,000 on advanced training for local and state environmental regulators and investigators.
According to a plea agreement filed last week in federal court here, Archer Daniels Midland Co., owner and operator of Southern Cellulose Plant in Alton Park, will plead guilty this week and pay an additional $100,000 in fines on four counts of “discharging illegal pollutants” to a city storm drain.
The drain leads to a tributary of Chattanooga Creek, which flows to the Tennessee River.
Without the plea and if found guilty, the company could face up to $800,000 in fines, court documents show. The plea agreement still must be approved by a judge. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Morris declined to comment on the plea agreement until after the hearing.
David Weintraub, director of external communications for Archer Daniels Midland Co., said ADM adopted policies and undertaken projects to capture and appropriately handle process water at the facility.
“ADM is committed to responsible environmental practices,” he said in a prepared statement. “We have fully cooperated with the investigation into this matter, and we’ve reached a proposed settlement.”
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation spokeswoman Tisha Calabrese-Benton said TDEC’s Chattanooga field office regulators initiated the investigation after finding the company illegally discharging wastewater.
The pollutant in the wastewater is nontoxic, but it could harm aquatic life, said ADM attorney Thomas Dillard.
ADM extracts cellulose from waste cotton material, and the process requires a large volume of water. At times the process water accumulates and is pumped or allowed to leak into stormwater drains at the plant. Officials said the waste should have been sent to a wastewater treatment system and the city sewer lines.
ADM has not obtained a permit to discharge nonstormwater pollutants to Chattanooga Creek, according to court documents.
Ms. Calabrese-Benton said the portion of the fine allocated to the environment and conservation department will be used to buy equipment and to train a Tennessee-based forensic team.
“The team would be used in those instances where there is evidence of a potential criminal act related to the environment and would provide an additional resource for both state and federal agencies as we cooperate to investigate environmental crime,” she said.
Under that agreement, ADM will pay a fine of $100,000 and donate $100,000 to environmental protection organizations in the Chattanooga area, he said.
Court documents set out ADM’s “community service” payments:
* $50,000 to TDEC’s Crime Investigation Reserve Fund to equip and train forensic sampling teams.
* $25,000 to the Southern Environmental Enforcement Training Fund Inc. to be used by the Southern Environmental Enforcement Network to train local state and federal regulators and law enforcement agents and officers
* $25,000 to the city of Chattanooga’s Water Quality Fund.
The plea agreement and other court documents state that the Archer Daniels Midland Co.’s discharges “were the result of negligent conduct by employees of ADM who were acting within the scope of their duties and on behalf of ADM.”
INCIDENTS OF POLLUTION
Court documents describe the Archer Daniels Midland Co. pollution incidents as follows:
* On Oct. 16, 2003, several thousand gallons of process water containing cotton fibers and other pollutants were discharged to a tributary of Chattanooga Creek from the plant by way of a storm water drain.
* On April 4, 2004, the process water and other pollutants were discharged to the creek when an ADM employee used a portable sump pump to drain a flooded trucked loading dock into a storm drain.
* On April 15, 2004, about 2,000 gallons of process water containing cotton fibers and other pollutants were discharged to the creek when the water drained from a pre-cleaning system into a storm drain.
* On Sept. 25, 2004, about 710 gallons of process water from the dewatering equipment at the lint cleaning area containing cotton fibers and other pollutants were discharged to the creek when an ADM employee used a portable sump pump to drain a flooded truck loading dock onto the ground, which then flowed to a storm drain.
WHAT IS CELLULOSE?
Cellulose is an insoluble substance that is the main constituent of plant cell walls and of vegetable fibers such as cotton.
Pam Sohn has been reporting or editing Chattanooga news for 25 years. A Walden’s Ridge native, she began her journalism career with a 10-year stint at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. She came to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 1999 after working at the Chattanooga Times for 14 years. She has been a city editor, Sunday editor, wire editor, projects team leader and assistant lifestyle editor. As a reporter, she also has covered the police, ...
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