DuPont will pay $1.275 million as part of a settlement with the federal government for eight alleged releases of harmful levels of hazardous substances at its Belle, W. Va. facility between May 2006 and January 2010.
The EPA says several of the releases posed significant risk to people or the Kanawha River. One DuPont worker died after exposure to phosgene, a toxic gas released due to DuPont’s failure to comply with industry accident prevention procedures.
In addition to the $1.275 penalty, DuPont will take corrective actions to prevent future releases to resolve the alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.
Through this settlement, DuPont will implement enhanced risk management operating procedures to improve its process of responding to alarms triggered by releases of hazardous substances.
DuPont will also develop an enhanced operating procedure to improve its management of change process, which is a best practice used to ensure that environmental, health and safety risks are controlled when a company makes changes to their processes.
In addition, DuPont will improve procedures so federal, state, and local responders are notified of emergency releases, and will conduct training exercises to prepare employees to make such notifications.
DuPont estimates that it will spend approximately $2,276,000 to complete the required improvements to its safety and emergency response processes.
In July, DuPont agreed to pay a $440,000 civil penalty and comply with air pollution control measures required by the Clean Air Act, and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act at its DuPont Yerkes chemical manufacturing facility in Tonawanda, NY.