Board of Public Works levies fines against multiple manufacturers for wastewater permit violations

Elkhart City’s Board of Public Works voted Feb. 24 to assess penalties against several manufacturers after staff said they violated industrial wastewater permit requirements and reporting deadlines under the city’s Enforcement Response Plan.

The action covered multiple permittees and a range of violations: exceedances for zinc at McDow Enterprises, late or missing self-monitoring reports from JBS Prepared Foods and Bimbo/Bimbo Bakeries, and reporting-location confusion and missed CBOD5 monitoring at Benell Aluminum Inc. Board staff described each matter and recommended penalties consistent with the city plan.

Why it matters: industrial wastewater permits establish monitoring and reporting that protect the city’s treatment systems and compliance with state and federal requirements; routine enforcement is intended to correct noncompliance and, for repeated failures, to publicize significant noncompliance as required by the plan.

Steve Brown, public works and utilities pre-treatment staff, outlined the cases and the Enforcement Response Plan’s recommended penalties. He said the zinc exceedance at McDow Enterprises was a repeat violation and that follow-up sampling showed the company had returned to compliance. On the record, Brown said staff would publish significant noncompliance where required by the plan.

Representatives from Benell Aluminum told the board they were surprised by some of the notices because an updated permit introduced new parameters and renamed sampling locations (previously “manhole A/B,” now “end of process” and “end of pipe”), which contributed to lab confusion. A company representative said the firm had implemented corrective steps: “As soon as we received the notice of violation in December, we took immediate action,” and described new checklists, preventive maintenance reminders and tighter lab cross-checks with their laboratory partner and consultant Scott Shudy.

Acting Director Jeff Schaefer and other board members acknowledged the industry’s compliance challenges after a permit renewal that added parameters. Schaefer said the permit had been issued in October and gave companies time to comply, but also emphasized the difficulty operators face when multiple new requirements are added quickly.

On individual outcomes, the board approved enforcement penalties consistent with the response plan, with several penalties reduced from plan-recommended amounts after the board considered corrective steps and circumstances. In one example the board reduced a proposed $600 penalty for Benell Aluminum to $300; in another instance the board cut a recommended third-offense penalty in half to $1,250.

Staff said where noncompliance met the threshold for “significant noncompliance,” those facilities will be published in the local notice (the Elkhart Truth), as required by the plan. Staff also said they are pursuing consent orders and additional follow-up with permittees who have recurring problems.

The board did not impose any immediate operational orders beyond penalties and ongoing compliance monitoring; staff will continue sampling and report back as needed. The board moved on after the enforcement items to other agenda business.