E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont)
Outcome
DuPont agreed to pay a $3,195,000 civil penalty to resolve alleged hazardous waste, air, and water violations at its former La Porte, Texas chemical manufacturing facility, including RCRA hazardous waste violations, Clean Water Act permit violations, and Clean Air Act emissions violations.
Details
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company — Multi-Statute Violations at La Porte, Texas (2020)
Outcome: DuPont agreed to pay a $3,195,000 civil penalty to resolve alleged hazardous waste, air, and water violations at its former chemical manufacturing facility in La Porte, Texas, addressing violations across RCRA, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Act enforcement programs simultaneously.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) operated a chemical manufacturing facility in La Porte, Texas, in the Houston Ship Channel industrial complex. The facility, which had operated for decades, faced enforcement action for violations documented across three separate federal environmental regulatory programs: RCRA hazardous waste management violations related to the handling, storage, and management of hazardous chemicals and waste generated at the chemical manufacturing operations; Clean Water Act violations related to wastewater discharge from the industrial facility; and Clean Air Act violations related to air emissions from the manufacturing operations.
The settlement, announced July 13, 2020, required DuPont to pay a $3,195,000 civil penalty split among the federal government and the State of Texas through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The multi-statute enforcement action reflects a pattern seen in complex chemical manufacturing operations where the same operational activities generate compliance obligations under multiple regulatory programs simultaneously, and where inadequate cross-program compliance management allows violations to accumulate independently across multiple enforcement jurisdictions.
The La Porte facility operated in a region — the Houston Ship Channel corridor — that is one of the most heavily enforced industrial zones in the United States, where EPA Region 6 and TCEQ jointly monitor hundreds of petrochemical and chemical manufacturing facilities. The facility's violations in this high-scrutiny regulatory environment underscore the consequence of inadequate compliance management even in locations with well-established regulatory oversight infrastructure.
Primary Source: DuPont Settlement Information Sheet | US EPA
How Crucible Prevents This
DuPont's simultaneous violations across RCRA, CWA, and CAA at a single Texas facility illustrate the consequence of managing environmental compliance in regulatory silos. Crucible's cross-statute compliance calendar — tracking hazardous waste management obligations, NPDES monitoring deadlines, and CAA permit requirements in a unified system — prevents the gap between programs that allows multiple simultaneous violations to accumulate. A session-init MEMORY requiring review of all active permit obligations across all regulatory programs at a chemical manufacturing facility would surface these gaps before enforcement.
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