For Release: Nov. 26, 2007
Contact: J. Tucker Martin or David Clementson
Email: tucker.martin@oag.state.va.us or dclementson@oag.state.va.us
Phone: 804-786-2071
Attorney General’s Office Wins Victory for Cleaner Environment in Shenandoah Valley
Sale of Polluting SIL Plant to Town of Broadway Means Cleaner Water, Neighborhoods
HARRISONBURG – Attorney General Bob McDonnell’s office won a victory for a cleaner environment in the Shenandoah Valley. Thirteen months of legal action ended with the successful sale and rehabilitation of a wastewater treatment plant responsible for chronically polluting the Chesapeake Bay watershed and residential neighborhoods.
SIL Clean Water LLC, located in Rockingham County east of Timberville, was sold last week to the Town of Broadway. A decree issued by the Rockingham County Circuit Court gives Broadway enough time to upgrade the facility and comply with the new Chesapeake Bay nutrient limits taking effect Jan. 1, 2011. (Every other discharger in the Chesapeake Bay watershed faces this same upgrade deadline.) The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality approved the decree after receiving public comment for 30 days.
“These are beautiful Virginia rivers, and we want to keep them that way,” McDonnell said. “SIL has suffered the ultimate sanction for polluting our environment and will no longer operate the facility. The company has lost its property, and there are no further assets with which SIL could pay a penalty. With today’s action, we are eliminating a source of pollution of state waters and providing for the health, safety and welfare of the present and future citizens of the Commonwealth.”
When the Attorney General sued the Illinois company for polluting the Shenandoah River and the Chesapeake Bay watershed and for permitting overflowing sewage near a residential neighborhood, SIL tried to mitigate its damages by declaring bankruptcy in Chicago. During litigation, the Attorney General demanded that the company begin environmental upgrades while the plant was being sold to Broadway.
“We have achieved a solution that will stop SIL’s pollution of this wonderful river and our Shenandoah Valley,” McDonnell added. “I applaud the DEQ for helping us achieve this outcome. I’d also like to compliment the Town of Broadway for stepping forward to take over this failed treatment plant, and pledging to operate it in an environmental friendly manner.”
Case Background
On Oct. 10, 2006, Attorney General McDonnell filed suit against SIL Clean Water LLC in the Rockingham County Circuit Court on behalf of Virginia’s State Water Control Board and Department of Environmental Quality. He sued the company for gross violations of its Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit (issued by the State under a program derived from the federal Clean Water Act), because SIL appeared unwilling – or unable – to comply with the permit.
In January 2007, SIL filed for bankruptcy in Chicago. The Attorney General was able to secure the liquidation of SIL's assets and the sale of its facility to the Town of Broadway to permit a new plant operator to take control.
As the case was being litigated in two courts, the Attorney General wanted to stop SIL’s sewage overflows next to a residential neighborhood in Timberville and SIL’s gross violations of phosphorus limits. In May, SIL installed new pumps in Timberville to abate the sewage overflows. SIL also performed a one-time “dosing” of the storage lagoon to precipitate phosphorus. And they have just installed equipment for a chemical feed to continuously precipitate phosphorus in that lagoon.
There have been no sewage overflows since the new pumps were installed, and the phosphorus concentration in the lagoon has plummeted. The chemical feed should be in operation in a few days, which will substantially reduce the effects of the discharge to the North Fork Shenandoah River while Broadway is upgrading the facility to meet the requirements of the permit and Chesapeake Bay regulations. (The North Fork joins the South Fork at Front Royal to form the Shenandoah River. The Shenandoah flows for 57 miles until it empties into the Potomac River which flows into the Chesapeake Bay.)
