WESTERN SUGAR HIT WITH BIG FINE
CDPHE deal aimed at cleaning up air, land and water at Fort Morgan facility
Colorado health officials have settled a dispute with the Western Sugar Cooperative by imposing a $2 million fine for violating state environmental laws.
Colorado health officials have settled a dispute with the Western Sugar Cooperative by imposing a $2 million fine for violating state environmental laws — violations that include odor emissions, unauthorized spills of fecal coliform and sulfide, and illegal stockpiling of waste including coal ash.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment on Friday afternoon disclosed the fine and terms of a deal designed to clean up operations at Western Sugar’s Fort Morgan factory, northeast of Denver along Interstate 76, where the company produces sugar beets. For more than seven, CDPHE regulators have been negotiating with Western Sugar over requirements for continued operations.
Western Sugar officials have agreed to:
*Clean up wastewater
* Get rid of the waste stockpiles and, in the future, dispose of waste properly
* Investigate possible contamination of groundwater and soil in the Fort Morgan area and correct harm
* Implement an odor control plan and comply with it
* Retrofit existing coal-fired boilers with natural gas burners
* Deposit financial assurance money to guarantee that costs of cleanups will be covered
* Provide funds for a project to improve local water quality
* Accept a suspension of CDPHE environmental permits and licenses if Western Sugar fails to comply with terms of this deal
CDPHE officials said Western Sugar violated multiple laws: Colorado’s Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act, the Water Quality Control Act, and the Solid Wastes Disposal Sites and Facilities Act.
The air pollution violations included excessive emission of odors. Water pollution included discharges in excess of what state regulators allow — pollution that likely contributed to odor impacts on people living at Fort Morgan.
Western Sugar put waste in two large stockpiles, visible from I-76, containing coal ash and precipitated calcium carbonate from manufacturing at the plant.
“We are encouraged by Western Sugar’s commitment to undertake a significant overhaul to bring its Fort Morgan facility into compliance, ” CDPHE environmental programs director Martha Rudolph said in a prepared statement issued by an agency spokesman.
“Each step of the overhaul will proceed along a timeline and, when completed, both the residents of Fort Morgan and the environment will benefit from the improvements Western Sugar is making.”