New England Firm to Pay $10M for Clean Water Act Violations

Tyco Printed Circuit Group (TPCG) of Stafford, Conn., a subsidiary of Tyco International, was sentenced on 12 counts of violating the Clean Water Act.

The plea agreement calls for TPCG to pay a total of $10 million in fines. Of that amount, $6 million will be paid as a federal criminal fine; $2.7 million will go to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) natural resources fund; the Towns of Stafford and Manchester will receive $500,000 each to fund improvements in their sewer and water treatment systems; and $300,000 will pay for recycling deionized and other wastewater at the company’s Stafford and Staffordville facilities.

Between 1999 and June 2001, TPCG managers at the company’s Stafford, Staffordville and Manchester facilities engaged in practices that caused the facilities to discharge wastewater with higher than permitted levels of pollutants into municipal sewage treatment systems.

The illegal practices included, but were not limited to, diluting potentially non-compliant wastewater samples, discarding of samples with excessive levels of toxic metals, and omitting samples that were not in compliance for pH.

Sentencing took place on Aug. 17 in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in Hartford.

The case was investigated by the Boston Office of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Connecticut DEP with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center.

It was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Hartford.