Monday, August 30, 2010

West Point Facility Apparently Completing Wastewater Pollution Abatement Settlement


Hat tip to Ed Silverman at Pharmalot here -- it seems that back in 2007, Merck's West Point facility was caught befouling the local waterways with an unpermitted bolus of potassium thiocyanate. To settle with the US EPA, and the New Jersey environmental agencies, Whitehouse Station agreed to pay for, and have built, a "tiny bubbles" scrubber system (cost: $850,000) in Upper Gwynedd township. Per The Reporter online (NJ), this morning -- do go read it all:

. . . .Merck & Co. Inc. agreed to purchase and pay for the installation of the system as part of its settlement with state and federal agencies, following an illegal chemical release into Upper Gwynedd Township's sewer system, according to a Dec. 13, 2007, news release from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Installation of the dissolved oxygen system is almost complete, according to Merck spokeswoman Connie Wickersham.

The company agreed to a settlement of more than $20 million after its West Point facility released potassium thiocyanate into the local sewer system, the release states. . . .

We'll keep you posted -- but this was a dye spill.

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