'Smart Window' maker to pay nearly $5 million fine for illegal wastewater dumping in Mississippi

abcnews.go.com:

A federal judge has ruled California-based company will pay just under $5 million in fines for discharging wastewater into a publicly owned sewage treatment plant in Mississippi without obtaining a valid state permit

JACKSON, Miss. — A California-based company will pay just under $5 million in fines for discharging wastewater into a publicly owned sewage treatment plant in Mississippi without obtaining a valid state permit, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

View Inc., a glass-making firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, previously pleaded guilty to negligently discharging wastewater into a city sewer system from the company's sole manufacturing facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi. That discharge endangered residents in the north Mississippi community and Memphis suburb of almost 40,000, federal prosecutors said.

“When companies place profit and convenience above public safety, we will do all we can to punish that behavior and protect the public,” U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner said in a news release. “This illegal discharge of wastewater into the public treatment facility demonstrated a blatant disregard for the safety and wellbeing of citizens in our District."

In addition to the fines, U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock sentenced the company to a three-year term of probation.

The company discharges about 248,000 gallons of wastewater per day from glass-cutting, grinding, washing and polishing directly into the city’s sewer system. But the company did so without a proper permit for years, prosecutors said.

“Unpermitted discharges of industrial wastewater can pose a serious threat to our nation’s wastewater treatment systems,” said Charles Carfagno, a special agent with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The company did