A water protection nonprofit won a pollution case against an Inland Empire company Jan. 2 that comes with a $94,000 penalty and an environmental protection project.
Inland Empire Waterkeeper filed their case Feb. 18, 2018. They claimed that Corona Clay Co. did not clean up its byproducts, and that the byproducts were continually swept into the Santa Ana River by rain.
These byproducts included iron, aluminum, lead, zinc, cadmium, chromium, copper, arsenic, mercury, benzene, gasoline, diesel fuels, fuel additives, coolants and antifreeze.
The facility was also rented to a brick cutting operation.
The jury verdict found that Corona Clay failed to use the best available technology, failed to develop a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan, failed to analyze its storm water samples for iron, oil, grease and suspended solids.
The owner of Corona Clay has not replied to a request for comment.
The company was found liable for four of the seven causes of action Inland Empire Waterkeeper accused them of.
The company was liable for 12,541 violations of the Clean Water Act because every day deficient was considered a violation. They could have faced a civil penalty of $1.8 million, according to California Central District Judge David Carter’s judgment.
Instead, Carter and Corona Clay agreed to a $1.79 million environmental project. Twenty percent of that will go to Orange County Conservation Corps, and 80% to Temescal Valley Water District. If the funds are distributed, Corona Clay’s civil penalty will be $94,000.
The company was ordered by the court to implement a stormwater pollution prevention plan, analyze storm water samples four times a year, analyze those samples for pollutants and report its results to the Stormwater Multiple Application & Report Tracking System. They also must submit to the court annual reports for the next two years that include date-stamped photographs that show materials are covered from the rain, that the facility is being swept and that the facility has storm water basins that collect stormwater.
Inland Empire Waterkeeper is a program of Orange County Coastkeeper, according to the complaint. Coastkeeper is a nonprofit public benefit corporation.
Barry Lee and Lauren Chase of Orange County Coastkeeper, Christopher Sproul of Environmental Advocates, Jennifer Novak of The Law Office of Jennifer F. Novak and Matthew Robinson and William Frentzen of Morrison Foerster represented Waterkeeper.
Brian Neach and Rodric Pacheco of Pacheco and Neach represented Corona Clay.
Case No. 8:18-cv-00333
Read the amended complaint here.
Read the judgment here.
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