Source: http://www.bizjournals.com, June 24, 2016
By: Jeff Blumenthal

D. G. Yuengling and Son, the nation’s oldest brewing company, has agreed to pay almost $10 million to settle Clean Water Act violations involving its two breweries near its Pottsville, Pa., headquarters

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that in a consent decree filed Thursday in federal court in Harrisburg, the company has agreed to spend about $7 million to improve environmental measures at its brewery operations after it allegedly discharged pollutants into the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority municipal wastewater treatment plant. Yuengling will also pay a $2.8 million penalty to the EPA.

In addition, the consent decree includes a requirement to implement an environmental management system (EMS) focused on achieving Clean Water Act compliance at the facilities. Yuengling must also hire a third-party consultant to develop the EMS and an independent auditor to ensure proper implementation.

In a complaint filed concurrently with the settlement, federal prosecutors alleged that Yuengling violated pretreatment permit requirements, including discharge limits for biological oxygen demand, phosphorus and zinc to the Sewer Authority’s treatment plant, at least 141 times from 2008 to 2015.

Companies must obtain and comply with permit limits on discharges of industrial waste that goes to public treatment facilities, which in many cases require “pretreatment” of waste before it is discharged. The case was referred to EPA by the Sewer Authority.

“Yuengling is responsible for serious violations of its Clean Water Act pretreatment discharge limits, posing a potential risk to the Schuylkill River which provides drinking water to 1.5 million people,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “This history of violations and failure to fully respond to orders from the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority and EPA to correct the problems resulted in this enforcement action.”

In a statement, Yuengling said that it has installed an $8 million state-of-the-art wastewater pretreatment system at its older Pottsville brewery, as required by the settlement. It said plans for the facility began in 2013. Construction was completed in February 2016 and the pretreatment system started operating in March.