Salt Lake precious-metals company fined $3 million

A precious-metals company operating in Salt Lake City has been fined $3 million for filing false reports to environmental regulators about water discharged from its plant.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson issued the fine Tuesday against Johnson Matthey Inc., a Pennsylvannia-based company.

Company officials admitted in September to violating the Clean Water Act at its Salt Lake City facility that refines gold and silver, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

As part of the operation, pollutants such as selenium accumulated in the wastewater. The wastewater was treated before it was sent to the Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility, which in turn treated it again and discharged it into the Jordan River and the Great Salt Lake, according to prosecutors.

An internal audit in 1999 found the facility exceeded the allowable amount of selenium in its discharge. Prosecutors said company employees in 2000 screened the samples before they were sent to an outside laboratory, ensuring that only those with the lowest selenium levels would be viewed by environmental regulators.

The company's discharge permit required that samples be representative of the what was going into the discharge pipes.

"Violators who submit false reports or bogus data undermine our efforts to protect the public and the environment," Lori Hanson, a criminal investigator with the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver, said in a statement.

A former plant manager and a former general manager each pleaded guilty to making false statements to government officials, according to the Justice Department.

A company official at the Salt Lake City operation forwarded calls to company offices on the East Coast. Company officials there couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

A portion of the fine — $750,000 — will go toward environmental projects in Utah, including the purchase and rehabilitation of wildlife habitat around the Great Salt Lake and its tributaries.