General Electric agreed to pay $2.25M penalty for air pollution

General Electric Co. agreed to pay a $2.25 million civil penalty for environmental violations in its former facility in Waterford.

The Gazette report states that the U.S. Justice Department announced GE has to pay the amount for releasing unsafe levels of air pollution by using the incinerator in their silicone plant in upstate New York and submitting bogus records to cover it. Moreover, the Justice Department also stated that GE overrode the facility's automatic waste system up to almost 1,900 times from 2006 to 2007, which means GE had violated its air pollution permits by still burning hazardous waste.

The violations were revealed when federal and state officials raided the plant on June 30, 2009. Documentations about the raid were only shed to light in the recent case that lead to the GE's penalty.

In a report by Times Union, the complaint also stated that GE knew that disabling the incinerator shutdown system is a violation of the state law since 1998. The penalty could have reached $60 million, but since the incinerators were shut off, the authorities can't truly say how many times the company committed the violations.

In a report from Saratogian News, First Assistant United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith said, "By operating a system to bypass safety controls, GE put the public and the environment in harm's way. This office will continue to pursue vigorously companies that thwart laws designed to protect public health, safety, and our environment."

Ge agreed to the fines with the company's spokesman David Lurie saying the settlement was reasonable and that they would fully cooperate with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The government agencies that charged GE for overriding its cut off system include the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Attorney General's Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Justice.