In January, CG Roxanne pleaded guilty to storing and transporting hazardous waste.
By City News Service, News Partner
LOS ANGELES, CA — The family-owned business that bottles Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water faces a possible $5 million criminal fine Wednesday in Los Angeles for storing and transporting hazardous waste containing arsenic.
Both the government and defendant CG Roxane agreed to jointly recommend that the court sentence the company to a three-year term of probation, a fine of $5 million, and the implementation of a compliance program.
In January, CG Roxane pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count each of unlawful storage of hazardous waste and unlawful transportation of hazardous material.
Two family-owned hazardous wastewater and stormwater transportation companies were each ordered last month to pay a $375,000 fine after they pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act by trucking wastewater produced by CG Roxane without disclosing information about arsenic in the waste transported from the bottling plant in Olancha.
The case focused on the bottling plant’s wastewater, not the safety or quality of Crystal Geyser’s water, prosecutors said.
CG Roxane has been bottling natural spring water in California since 1990. The public was not harmed through the long-discontinued conduct, and the bottler said it is committed to ensuring that its business practices do not create any harm, according to court papers.
Olancha is in Inyo County, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles.
Source: Los Angeles Patch
