Source: Environmental Protection Agency Region 1, Boston
Under a consent decree surrounding alleged Clean Water Act violations in ready mixed and sand & gravel production, Kingston, N.H.-based Torromeo Industries Inc. will pay a civil penalty, implement compliance measures, and cover a $500,000 pervious concrete placement.
Dubbed a Supplemental Environmental Project, the latter entails upgrade of a 35,000 sq. ft., Windham, N.H., parking lot whose impervious surface allows polluted storm water to drain into the adjacent Cobbett’s Pond—a condition the new concrete will greatly curtail.
Settlement terms require Torromeo Industries to eliminate process water discharges from its ready mixed and aggregate production site; monitor and report storm water discharges; maintain a storm water pollution prevention plan; hire personnel certified in storm water management to oversee compliance at its permit-bound Kingston and Methuen, Mass., sites; and, provide operational employees training in storm water management.
EPA Region 1 officials alleged in a November 2010 complaint that the producer violated the Clean Water Act by discharging storm and process water into wetlands and waterways, including the Little River, without required authorization under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. The consent decree between Torromeo Industries and the agency was lodged in U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, and subject to a 30-day public comment period.