Brazoria wastewater co. to pay $2.75M

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Gulf Chemical and Metallurgical Corporation pleaded guilty in a Travis County Court on Friday to 11 counts of unauthorized discharge of a waste or pollutant and agreed to pay nearly $3 million in damages.

The Travis County Environmental Crimes Unit found the company, based out of Brazoria County, had significantly damaged the environment. The company pleaded guilty in a four-page form submitted to Judge Mike Lynch on Friday morning.

According to a news release by Gulf Chemical, the agreement resolves "the district attorney’s and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) criminal investigation into the past operation of the company’s wastewater treatment system at its catalyst recycling facility in Freeport, Texas."

"In the agreement, GCMC agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony violations of the Texas Water Code dating from June 2007 through January 2008 and to pay a fine of $2.75 million."

“This situation has been embarrassing for our company and we apologize to our employees, customers and the community for the concern it has caused. This does not represent the high standards we strive to meet every day,” said Dave Pacella, GCMC President. “By agreeing to this plea, we accept responsibility as a company for what happened in the past, and more importantly it allows us to move forward to implement measures to ensure that we are never in this position again. We look forward to earning back the trust of all of our stakeholders.”

According to the The Facts newspaper of Brazoria County ,  the investigation began when a "tipster called the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) on July 6 (2010) and said she had uncovered a spreadsheet on a company computer the month before that she believed showed the company was “manipulating the flow” of wastewater, the search warrant states. The former employee believed the spreadsheet showed Gulf Chemical would keep samples “artificially low” to meet permitted quality levels, according to the search warrant, which was filed in Travis County courts."

According to a news release by the company on Friday:

"GCMC learned of the potential violations in September 2009 and immediately launched a third-party investigation and audit of the facility’s wastewater system. After the violations were identified, GCMC engaged two environmental consulting firms to immediately design and implement changes to the plant’s wastewater system, and in December, voluntarily reported the violations to the TCEQ before learning of the criminal investigation."

“We moved quickly to correct the problems as soon as they were discovered,” Pacella said. “We will continue to work diligently every day to ensure our operations are safe and environmentally responsible.”