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April 30, 2021 01:39 PM

NGO sues EPS firm over clean water pellet violations

Steve Toloken
Assistant Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
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    A California environmental group is suing a Los Angeles-area plastics firm for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act, accusing it of improperly discharging expanded polystyrene foam and other pollutants into local waterways.

    The April 25 lawsuit against Diversified Panel Systems Inc. by the Ecological Rights Foundation says the Oxnard, Calif., company lacked proper permits and "failed to implement even basic pollution prevention techniques" for its EPS foam.

    The firm did not respond to emails seeking comment and someone who answered the company's phone April 29 said he was unaware of the lawsuit and declined to comment.

    DPS manufactures refrigeration and cold storage systems using closed-cell EPS foam cores that meet Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star standards, according to its website.

    The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, says EPS is a pollutant under the Clean Water Act and that the company regularly cuts the foam into smaller pieces that then get into the environment.

    "During rain and wind events, pieces of EPS ranging from the size of softballs to individual EPS pellets escape the facility," the lawsuit said.

    The foundation said that its investigation, "including observations, videos and photos of EPS foam pieces being discharged from the facility during both wet and dry weather … demonstrates Diversified's failure to implement even basic pollution prevention techniques for its outdoor storage of EPS plastics."

    It said it reviewed public records in the Oxnard city government, sampled stormwater runoff, evaluated satellite imagery and found violations each time rainfall exceeded one-tenth of an inch.

    The foundation also said stormwater samples it collected at DPS showed aluminum, iron and zinc exceeding EPA benchmark standards.

    The suit is seeking damages for discharges dating back to February 2016 and said each separate daily violation could be fined up to $52,000.

    It's the latest private lawsuit against a plastics firm alleging Clean Water Act violations over plastics discharges.

    In March, Frontier Logistics LP agreed to pay $1 million to settle a similar federal lawsuit brought by local environmental groups over pellet leakage into the harbor in Charleston, S.C.

    In 2019, Formosa Plastics Corp. agreed to pay $50 million to end a lawsuit over one of its resin plants in Texas, in what was said to be the largest settlement of a CWA case brought by private individuals.

    Under federal law, private groups can bring lawsuits alleging violations of clean water laws 60 days after they first send letters to the company and relevant federal and state agencies saying they intend to do so.

    The suit said that Oxnard, a city of 200,000 on the Pacific Coast about 60 miles from Los Angeles, contains some of the largest coastal wetlands in Southern California and that they are home to a dozen endangered species.

    The foundation also said that Oxnard ranks in the top 20 percent of environmentally burdened communities in California, with parts of the city in the top 10 percent, citing CalEPA data.

    "As a low-income, predominantly immigrant community, Oxnard has long been used as the dumping ground for the Central Coast's most polluting industries," the lawsuit said.

    It said 85 percent of the city's residents are people of color, and that nearly half of adults have less than a high school education.

    The April 25 lawsuit against Diversified Panel Systems Inc. by the Ecological Rights Foundation says the Oxnard, Calif., company lacked proper permits and "failed to implement even basic pollution prevention techniques" for its EPS foam.

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