The Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department found Sorrento, which has a wastewater treatment facility separate from its cheese-making plant, violating its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit from December 2005 to September 2008.
During this period, the company exceeded its monthly and daily discharge limits for total suspended solids, E.coli, biological oxygen demand, phosphorus, and pH into Mason Creek, and failed to collect and analyze samples and notify EPA of its excess discharges in a timely manner.
Under the NPDES permit program, which regulates point sources that discharge pollutants to surface waters, Sorrento is allowed to discharge approximately 650,000 gallons per day of process wastewater. Sorrento has brought its Nampa facility into compliance with its permit.
EPA Idaho office director Jim Werntz said that companies like Sorrento must manage their waste responsibly and pay close attention to the limits in their permits.
“We will fine facilities that violate their permit limits and degrade the water quality of Idaho’s rivers and streams,” Werntz said.
