Ingalls pays for six years of portable toilet pollution

PASCAGOULA — Ingalls Shipbuilding has paid a $33,775 fine after a portable toilet dumped untreated waste into the East Pascagoula River for more than six years.

Spokesman Bill Glenn says that the toilet station was connected to a storm drain at the Pascagoula shipyard after 2005′s Hurricane Katrina, instead of to the sewer system. The unit of Huntington Ingalls Industries found the problem in October 2011, corrected it the same day and called regulators, Glenn says.

By the time the shipyard fixed the problem, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality estimates the toilet had dumped about 1.8 million gallons of wastewater into the river.

Under a June settlement with MDEQ, Ingalls studied whether the discharge caused damage, and whether remedial actions were needed. Glenn says the study found no environmental harm.

One Response to “Ingalls pays for six years of portable toilet pollution”

1. Septic Tank Emptying Says:
   September 26th, 2012 at 8:15 am

   Why it took so long is beyond me. 1.8 million gallons of wet waste into a river. someone must of known.