EPA sets $115,000
fine for Hilo firm
HILO >> The Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with the Hilo Coast Power Co. that requires it to pay a $115,000 fine for improper controls on waste water, the agency announced yesterday.
In a separate case, on Monday the EPA announced a $66,300 fine against Parker Ranch Foundation and Kau Kau Corp. for asbestos violations.
In the power company case, violations of the Clean Water Act were discovered in January and August 2001, the EPA said. The violations included improper discharge of water, exceeding temperature limits in the discharge water, a lack of controls to prevent storm water pollution, "poor housekeeping practices" regarding maintenance and discharge of pollutants.
"All companies that are permitted to discharge their waste water into the ocean need to monitor and clean it first," Alexis Strauss, water division director for the EPA's Pacific Southwest Region in San Francisco, said in a statement.
EPA and state Department of Health inspectors in January and August 2001 found the alleged Clean Water Act violations at the Pepeekeo facility, the former sugar processing plant for the Hilo Coast Processing Co. and a subsidiary of Brewer Environmental Industries. In March 2001 the EPA ordered Hilo Coast to correct the violations, and modified the order in September 2001 to include additional conditions.
When the charges were filed in August, Dennis Poma, who was Brewer's vice president of facilities and environmental compliance until last year and is now a consultant to the company, said Brewer already has spent more than $100,000 to address the EPA's 2001 complaints.
He said most of the violations stemmed from the plant's conversion from sugar mill to power plant in 1996.
"Every item has been addressed in one way or another, Poma said.
In the Parker case, the Parker Ranch Grill operated by Kau Kau Corp. and facility owner Parker Ranch Foundation were determined to have violated the Clean Air Act in 1998.
The companies failed to give proper notification of asbestos removal, failed to properly wet the removed asbestos and failed to control emissions from it, the EPA said.
