Hydro Extrusion USA pleads guilty to air pollution charges by Oregon District

The leader in aluminium recycling, Hydro Extrusion USA, has been accused of an air pollution crime and charged almost half a million dollars in penalties. The recycling firm has taken up the blame and agreed to pay up.

As early as August 2022, Federal prosecutors had led the accusation statement against the recycling firm, which is an inseparable part of Norway-based aluminium giant Norsk Hydro. The legal proceedings are to be held under the Clean Air Act, wherein the party has been found one count guilty of negligence and endangering the atmosphere. The blame was directed at the company’s Dalles facility, which has been storing contaminated aluminium scrap and inducing air pollution during the recycling process.

As cited in these official documents by the prosecutors and state regulators, Hydro Extrusion USA had acquired Tesla aluminium scrap from Cass Inc., a scrap supplier in west Oakland, Calif. The report explains that these scrap materials were laced with mineral oil, which, when burnt in induction furnaces, produced smoke consisting of hazardous chemicals. This crime was committed throughout the month of July 2018 to June 2019, when the facility did not own any pollution control machinery, and the furnaces emitted harmful residual gas directly into the atmosphere. 

After being repeatedly warned by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) inspectors and the U.S. EPA, the facility did not refrain from putting the contaminated aluminium scrap into the furnace, deliberately violating the unit’s air permit. Prosecutors also displayed the financial reason, as they believed Hydro had purchased the aluminium scrap at a US$466,000 lesser value than the equal amount of fresh 5000 and 6000 aluminium alloys would have been priced at.

In January 2020, DEQ charged a US$1.3 million fine, which can be deemed the largest air quality penalty the department has put out since its inception. The company’s annual report confirmed that in 2021, Hydro Extrusion USA had agreed to a final penalty amount of US$695,000 to eliminate the air quality dilemma.

Recently in August 2022, Hydro Extrusion came under extreme scrutiny after being charged with a Clean Air Act violation. The company was at that moment seen cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and ready to plead guilty on one count of the criminal act, as was noted in a press release.

The case is being hailed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. On January 23 this year, the parties submitted their plea agreement, and Hydro extrusion USA faced a misdemeanour charge to which they pled guilty.

The pre-scheduled sentencing will be initiated on April 24, 2023, with the company and prosecutors jointly pursuing the fine amount of US$550,000. It will now depend entirely on the judiciary system as to what amount is finally accepted by the judge.

In 2021 alone, Norsk Hydro recycled almost 335,000 tonnes of post-consumer aluminium, 224 per cent more than the previous year’s accumulation. Also, the company successfully recycled approximately 1 million tonnes of pre-consumer aluminium scrap.