C&H Sugar charged with polluting waterway CROCKETT Refinery accused of fouling waterway

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State water quality regulators are charging the century-old C&H sugar refinery in Crockett with dumping sugar, coliform bacteria, mercury and other chemicals into the Carquinez Strait over the last three years, potentially harming fish and marine life.

The more than 50 violations could cost the company as much as $500,000, depending on the findings of a hearing scheduled in February, according to the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board.

"These are older facilities, and that's what we face throughout the state - old pipes, old plants," said Dave Clegern, spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board, which oversees the regional agency. "They need to be monitoring this and have people trained to catch these things before we have 34 of them."

Regulators said 34 of the illegal discharges, 32 of which contained sugar, emanated from the plant, which uses water to cool its refining system. The remaining discharges came from storm-water runoff, a minor oil spill and from a sewage treatment plant operated by C&H and which serves the refinery and 1,100 properties in the Crockett area.

No single discharge created a "serious threat" during the July 1, 2005 to Oct. 31, 2008 span, Clegern said. But continued dumping could alter the pH levels of the water, endangering fish and plants.

Company officials said that after several delays they have repaired leaks in the cooling system that sent sugar into the waterway. The firm also said it installed new equipment and gave additional training to employees.

"We have taken the necessary steps to ensure such delays do not occur again and no sugar-discharge violations have occurred since last February (2008)," the company said in a statement.

This week's complaint was not the first for the refinery. Between September 2004 and June 2005, the water board recorded 10 violations, resulting in $30,000 in fines.

At the Feb. 11 hearing, the regional water board will hear from C&H before deciding whether to amend the fine or refer it to the state attorney general's office. The company may waive the hearing by paying the full amount.

In addition, C&H may be allowed to pay slightly less than $250,000 toward an environmental project such as upgrading its facilities or restoring a local habitat.

The red brick refinery on the banks of the Carquinez Strait was founded in 1906 as the California and Hawaiian Sugar Company Inc. Ninety-nine years later, in 2005, the company was purchased by American Sugar Refining Inc. of Yonkers, N.Y., which each year sells more than 3 million tons of white granulated, golden grown, powdered and other types of sugar. The Crockett facility annually produces about 700,000 tons of sugar.