U.S. Water News Online
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The environmental organization Black Warrior Riverkeeper Inc. has filed federal lawsuits against two Alabama companies, claiming the firms have polluted waterways.
Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit against Alabama Biodiesel Corp. of Moundville, contending the company discharged grease and vegetable-based oil about 20 times between June 2006 and August 2007.
It also joined Friends of the Locust Fork River in filing suit against Metro Recycling Inc., which operates a tire disposal landfill in Blount County, claiming the company discharged pollutants into Whites Creek, a tributary of the Locust Fork and Black Warrior River.
Both lawsuits ask a judge to find the companies in violation of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Alabama Water Pollution Control Act. It also asks a judge to order the companies to stop polluting the rivers, and fine them $32,500 for each day they violated the acts.
Richard Campo, vice president of Alabama Biodiesel, said he wasn't aware of the lawsuit, which was filed Aug. 20 in federal court in Birmingham. He said the company had met with the Riverkeeper group about some of its concerns and planned to meet with representatives again this week.
He also said the company has been working with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to develop a pollution permit application, since this was the state's first biodiesel fuel facility.
Attempts to reach him were not immediately successful.
Mark Martin, an attorney for Riverkeeper, said complaints came from residents living downstream from the biodiesel plant.
"We've had a lot of complaints about oily stuff in the water," Martin said.
In the suit against Metro Recycling, which was filed Aug. 21, the environmental groups say the pollutants discharged into Whites Creek included benzene, chloromethane, ethylbenzene, toluene, vinyl chloride and xylenes.
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