Mitsui & Co's ITC hit with water pollution charges after Texas tank fire
Mitsui & Co Ltd's Intercontinental Terminals Co faces five environmental criminal charges following a March chemical fire at its Deer Park, Texas, petrochemical storage facility, local officials said.
ITC was charged with polluting waterways that flow into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a statement by the Harris County district attorney. ITC could face penalties of up to $100,000 for each of the five charges, according to Harris County.
ITC did not immediately return a call for comment.
After a fire caused a dike at the facility to break, "large (and still unknown) quantities" of toxic chemicals spilled into a nearby waterway for five days, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement.
"The discharge from the ITC fire into Tucker Bayou is a clear water pollution case," Alex Forrest, an environmental crimes division chief prosecutor with the district attorney's office, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Collin Eaton in Houston; Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney)
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