U.S. DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS - James L. Porter, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that the United States has filed a Clean Water Act (CWA) complaint in the Southern District of Illinois on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against American Commercial Lines, Inc. (ACL), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, ACBL Transportation Services, LLC (ACBLTS), alleging that from June 2007 to February 2014, the two companies repeatedly and consistently violated their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits at their facility in Cairo, Illinois.
Reports submitted by ACL and ACBLTS to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency show that many of the alleged violations were egregious. The complaint notes over 50 occasions from 2007 to 2013 when ACL exceeded its daily maximum limit for fecal coliform (water contaminated by fecal matter) by a factor of nine or more, including at least 16 occasions when the concentration of fecal coliform measured 100 times higher than the permit limit. During one reporting period in September 2009, total residual chlorine – a pollutant that can be toxic to fish and other aquatic life even at low concentrations – allegedly registered more than 700 times the permit limit.
The complaint seeks civil penalties of up to $37,500 per violation day against both ACL and ACBLTS, as provided by statute.