[MAIL] A California company that produces Crystal Geyser bottled water has pleaded guilty to illegally dumping wastewater containing arsenic.
Crystal Geyser's parent company, CG Roxane, along with two contracted firms, were charged in 2018 with failing to disclose details of arsenic in wastewater transported from the bottling plant in Olancha, California.
Following a court case last week, the firm agreed to a $5million fine for storing and transporting the hazardous waste, federal prosecutors said.
The waste was produced by filtering arsenic out of Sierra Nevada spring water at CG Roxane LLC's facility in Owens Valley, authorities said.
CG Roxane was accused of discharging the wastewater into a man-made pond for about 15 years.
According to court records, the company created an 'arsenic pond' in a remote part of eastern California between Death Valley and the Sequoia National Forest and did not disclose that water pumped out of the pond and delivered to water treatment plants contained the poisonous heavy metal. |