Article from Sacramento Business Journal.
By Scott Rodd
Mar 23, 2018, 6:20am
Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. has settled a lawsuit that accused it of discharging polluted stormwater runoff from its West Sacramento cement plant into the Sacramento River and its tributaries.
Under the settlement, the Mexico-based company agreed to implement an infiltration basin to treat stormwater runoff from its 27-acre plant in West Sacramento. Cemex (NYSE: CX) also agreed to make $40,000 in grants for “environmentally beneficial projects” in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and to pay $34,000 in legal fees for the plaintiff in the lawsuit, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
The sportfishing alliance had originally sought $88 million in damages from Cemex when it filed the suit last year.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of California, had claimed Cemex failed to implement a sufficient monitoring program for assessing pollutant levels in stormwater runoff, as required by the state. The complaint also alleged that the cement company did not have adequate technology to treat stormwater runoff.
The alliance filed the suit after the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board found that water samples taken by Cemex from 2013 and 2016 did not meet the environmental benchmarks set by the board.
The settlement will also require Cemex to change its pollution prevention plan to include assessment of non-stormwater runoff, an assessment of how it eliminates pollution in water discharge and an update to its drainage mapping.
Attorneys for Cemex and for the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance could not be reached for comment.