Chemetco is fined $3.8 million in pollution case

Nov. 1, 2000
A federal judge on Monday fined Chemetco Inc., a copper smelting plant in Madison County, $3.8 million for installing a secret pipe that illegally dumped metal-filled wastewater into a creek for a decade.

By Michael Shaw

Oct. 31, 2000 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)—A federal judge on Monday fined Chemetco Inc., a copper smelting plant in Madison County, $3.8 million for installing a secret pipe that illegally dumped metal-filled wastewater into a creek for a decade.

Its own lawyer says the company is leveraged to the hilt and unprofitable due to a sagging copper market. He said the company will have trouble borrowing any money to pay the fine.

U.S. District Court Judge William D. Stiehl called the pipe's installation "willful and egregious" but said he didn't want to bankrupt the company and put 157 workers out of work. Prosecutors had recommended a fine of about twice the $3.8 million figure.

Stiehl allowed Chemetco to pay the fine over a three-year period, starting Friday with a $400,000 payment to satisfy the community service portion of the fine. That money will go to a Metro East natural resource protection agency, and the remainder goes to the federal government.

Former Chemetco owner Denis Feron ordered the 10-inch pipe installed in 1986 to connect one of the plant's wastewater basins to Long Lake, a stagnant creek that eventually reaches the Mississippi River. Collected rainwater contaminated by metals at the site and water used in the smelting process were dumped into Long Lake through the pipe.

After 10 years, zinc, lead and cadmium piled up five feet deep were found in the lake. Exposure to high levels of these metals can damage the lungs, kidneys and digestive tract, research shows.

Chemetco extracts copper from scrap metal in high-temperature furnaces.

As part of the sentence, it must clean the site as specified by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

The zinc oxide has been unearthed and piled onto Chemetco property. How it will be disposed of has yet to be determined.

The lake has been diverted, but the company must perform more comprehensive testing to determine whether contaminants are still present.

IEPA workers discovered the pipe in 1996 during a routine inspection.

After initially calling the dumping an accident, Chemetco pleaded guilty in January to criminal violation of the Clean Water Act and lying to officials about the pipe. Five former workers also received probation or in-home detention for their part.

IEPA said that Chemetco ignored environmental regulations for years and that getting the site cleaned up is the agency's No. 1 priority among industrial sites that still operate in the state. The company is the target of at least five civil lawsuits from agencies or private individuals seeking damages or cleanup measures.

Feron, who has been charged with criminally violiting the federal Clean Water Act, sold the company to John Suarez of Ladue in 1993. Feron has not been apprehended and is believed to be living in Ireland or his native Belgium.

Belleville lawyer Bruce Cook, a friend of Suarez's, said he represented the company for free because Chemetco hasn't turned a profit in three years.

He apologized on behalf of the company, said Suarez had no knowledge of the pipe until it was discovered and said Chemetco has spent millions in recent years on pollution control measures.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Quinley suggested that shouldn't let the company of the hook.

"There have been 30 years of this corporation avoiding the consequences of its conduct," he said.

© 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch via Bell&Howell Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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