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A West Valley City metal refining plant manipulated test results, allowing excessive amounts of contaminated water to flow into the Jordan River and Great Salt Lake. Then the company covered it up.
Those allegations form the heart of a 29-count grand jury indictment handed up Thursday against Johnson Matthey Inc. and two of its managers. The group allegedly falsified water tests in violation of the Clean Water Act so that the company could avoid excessively high readings for selenium, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
"The indictment in this case alleges that the defendants violated the laws that protect our environment and conspired to conceal the high level of pollutants they discharged by cheating on required tests and submitting false information regarding the amount of selenium they discharged," said Sue Ellen Wooldridge, a Justice Department lawyer.
Robert M. Talley, the Pennsylvania-based company's vice president, said Johnson Matthey is prepared to fight the charges.
"The company has been proactive in its own investigation of this matter and has been fully cooperative with the government agencies throughout," he said in a news release.
Johnson Matthey employs more than 50 people at the West Valley City plant, where it has refined silver and gold for more than 20 years. The specialty chemicals company has operations in 34 countries and employs about 7,400 worldwide.
The indictment, which includes charges of conspiracy to discharge pollutants in excess of permit limits, selective sampling, concealment and manipulating wastewater discharges, carries maximum penalties of $12.5 million.
John David McKelvie, director of the company's gold and silver operations for North America and Europe and former general manager of the West Valley City facility, could face fines of $4.5 million and up to 90 years in prison. And former plant manager Paul Card Greaves could face 125 years in prison and nearly $6.3 million in fines.
Johnson Matthey uses chemicals to process semi-refined gold and silver called "dore." Like other industrial facilities, the plant has a permit to discharge certain amounts of specific chemicals into the sewers.
The indictment zeroes in on excessive discharges of selenium. The Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility limits the amount of selenium discharged into the sewers by about two dozen industrial facilities, including Johnson Matthey.
The district, in turn, is limited in the amount of selenium it is allowed to discharge into Mill Creek, and eventually the Jordan River and Great Salt Lake.
Reed Fisher, the wastewater plant's general manager, said his agency does spot checks, but mainly depends on industrial facilities to do their own testing.
He said, even with the Johnson Matthey selenium discharges, the wastewater facility stayed within its own discharge limits.
"We have to trust these guys that they are doing what they say they are doing," he said.
However, environmentalists say that far too often, abuses like this occur.
"There has always been a suspicion about these kinds of tactics," said Jeff Salt, director of the Great Salt Lake Keeper. Salt said illegal night discharges occur nationwide. "You'd think in big urban places like Salt Lake City, we'd have controls in place and managers would have enough ethical values that they're beyond this kind of illicit business."
State regulators said they only learned Thursday about the allegations and had no comment.
Selenium discharge was already a major issue for the Jordan River and Great Salt Lake.
The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District recently withdrew a permit application to discharge selenium-tinged water from the new reverse-osmosis facility it will operate with Kennecott Utah Copper in the southwest end of the Salt Lake Valley.
A broad-based advisory group is currently studying what happens when selenium goes into the lake and what an acceptable selenium level would be.
"We're all concerned that waterfowl production in Farmington Bay is below what it should be," said Maunsel Pearce of the Great Salt Lake Alliance. "A number of factors contribute to that and selenium is one of them. . . . I hope they throw the book at them."
Selenium pollution case
* The charge: Metal refiner Johnson Matthey Inc. faces 29 felonies for allegedly dumping selenium into a stream that feeds into the Great Salt Lake.
* What is selenium? A naturally occurring mineral that damages human neurological and circulatory systems, as well as kidney and liver tissue. A greater concern is the reproductive damage it does to waterfowl, including the millions of migratory birds that depend on the Great Salt Lake.