Sims reaches settlement with US EPA, Department of Justice

Sims Metal Management (SMM), headquartered in New York City and in Sydney, has reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) with regard to a 2011 compliance order pertaining to the recycler's Redwood City, California, facility.

According to the U.S. EPA, the $189,500 fine is related to allegations that the facility violated the federal Clean Water Act by polluting the San Francisco Bay with scrap metal debris.

SMM writes in a statement that the company “has reached an agreement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency to pay $189,000 as a civil penalty for alleged residual claims stemming from a long-since resolved 2011 EPA compliance order while not admitting to any allegations or liability. The agreement related to an off-site ship-loading area used by SMM’s Redwood City facility along with various tenants of the Port of Redwood City.”

According to the EPA, since the early 1990s, Sims operated a conveyor belt without adequate pollution controls to prevent materials from falling off the conveyor and into San Francisco Bay.

While SMM reached a consent decree with the two agencies, Scott Miller, SMM chief corporate counsel, said the resolution was not about the San Francisco Bay, as the EPA stated, but rather “a small area around the ship-loading conveyor.”

Miller also points out that Sims had implemented a number of best practices around the conveyor before and after the 2011 order.

According to a press release from the U.S. EPA, the agency discovered during a 2011 stormwater permit inspection evidence of scrap metal from the company’s conveyor belt falling into the San Francisco Bay. At the time, the agency says, Sims had no protective covering on the conveyor moving scrap metals from its shredder and onto ships, so the metal dust blew off the top and fell into the Bay. EPA says it tested the shoreline near the conveyor and found high levels of toxic metals including mercury, lead, copper, zinc and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

In 2011, EPA ordered Sims to clean up the shoreline, enclose its conveyor and make other fixes to prevent future discharges to the Bay. In addition to paying a fine, the settlement requires Sims to investigate and clean up its pollution in the San Francisco Bay. Sims will conduct a sediment study to determine the extent of contamination in the Bay from its conveyor operations. If the study shows that its ship loading operations polluted the Bay, Sims will have to clean up the contamination.

The Sims statement continues, “In response to the 2011 order relating to off-site storm water management, by December 2012 SMM’s Redwood City facility had timely implemented the requirements of the compliance order to the satisfaction of EPA, including the implementation of additional best management practices related to its ship loading conveyor. In August 2013, the facility received EPA confirmation that it had complied with the order and the order was terminated.”

As part of the settlement, the company says, “SMM will prepare and implement a sediment sampling and analysis plan for the marine area beneath and around the ship-loading conveyor between the port’s industrial waterfront and the shared-use ship-loading wharf along the edge of Redwood Creek. Along with the settlement agreement EPA is filing a ‘complaint’ even though the settlement agreement settles all the remaining claims made by EPA in the complaint.”