Somethin' nasty in the Du Pont woodshed

Not a lot to report this week in the way of environmental raping and pillaging around these parts, so we cast our bloodshot eyes to the east, way over by the Louisiana line, and take note of E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co., the storied French concern that does business in Orange County, Texas as the Du Pont Sabine River Works.

That chemical manufacturing plant operation, as reported in today's Texas Register, faces a penalty of $176,575 for many and varied assaults on the land, air and water in and around Orange, some of which date back three years.

The penalty, set out in an agreed order, is one of the largest in recent memory (though our memory admittedly is failing rapidly.)

Here's the rundown of the enviro crimes ... deep breath...that has been edited, probably futilely, to eliminate legalese gibberish...:

"... allowing 11 unauthorized emissions events...failing to comply with an emissions limitation on June 25, 2003 from 12:28 to 12:37 hours when a plant wide incident caused an electrical upset resulting in equipment shutdowns which caused several reportable emissions events including the release of 49,050 pounds of propylene ... by failing to properly notify the TCEQ regional office of reportable emissions events...by failing to notify the TCEQ regional office of two reportable emissions events within 24 hours...by failing to maintain an emission rate below the MAERT limits...by failing to maintain an emission rate below the allowable plant wide nitrogen oxides limit.. by failing to maintain an emissions rate below the allowable emission limit...by failing to properly operate a flare...by failing to comply with an emissions limitation...by failing to maintain emission rate below the permitted limit...by failing to include all required information on the final report of an emissions event... by failing to include all required information on the final reports of emissions events...by exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level of 0.060 milligrams per liter based on a running annual average for haloacetic acids during the First Quarter of 2004...by failing to maintain an emission rate below the allowable emission limits...by failing to prevent unauthorized emissions...by failing to properly notify the TCEQ regional office of a reportable emissions event with 24 hours...by failing to comply with the final record requirements for an emissions event...by failing to maintain an emission rate limit...by failing to prevent unauthorized emissions... by failing to properly identify the authorized emissions limits for the compounds released during an emissions event occurring November 28 - 30, 2003...by failing to properly report an emissions event that began on November 28, 2003...by failing to prevent the release of unauthorized emissions at the D-Unit...by failing to maintain an emissions rate below the authorized emission rate for an emissions event that occurred on October 20, 2003...by failing to repair 72 components (valves) in volatile organic compound service during the April 23 - May 27, 2003 shutdown...by failing to use an approved Environmental Protection Agency method to determine the concentration of substances in the cooling water of the Adiponitrile unit...by failing to comply with effluent limits for outfalls 101...by failing to comply with the permit limit for pH range excursions for more than 60 minutes at outfall 001..."