{"id":180550,"date":"2026-04-30T20:04:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/180550\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T20:04:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:04:06","slug":"waterkeeper-takes-aim-at-neville-chemical-over-water-pollution-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/180550\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterkeeper takes aim at Neville Chemical over water pollution violations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The non-profit Three Rivers Waterkeeper<\/a>, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates<\/a>, has sent a 60-day notice<\/a> to Neville Chemical of its intent to sue the company for violating its water pollution permit nearly 9,500 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want our industries to not pollute our drinking water sources and not pollute critical habitat for our plants and animals,\u201d said Waterkeeper executive director Heather Hulton VanTassel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After receiving complaints about intense smells around Neville Island, along\u00a0the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, the Waterkeeper group couldn\u2019t identify the source. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard on the Ohio River to document if we find something in the riverway where exactly it\u2019s coming from, just because there are a lot of industries that do discharge into that region,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, they started analyzing self-reported water discharge data from permitted facilities in southwestern Pennsylvania submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

Of the 69 facilities the group included in its analysis<\/a>, many had permit violations, but Neville Chemical<\/a>, which makes adhesives and sealants, stood out as one of the worst offenders, according to Hulton VanTassel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when we uncovered their consistent exceedances of a variety of different contaminants, including some hydrocarbons, into our waterways that exceeded what they were allowed to put into the waterway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to Hulton VanTassel, the company\u2019s Neville Island plant exceeded its permit limits for hydrocarbons, such as benzene, as well as pH, total suspended solids, and oil and grease.<\/p>\n

A river watchdog tracks pollution violations at a chemical plant<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ohio River is a drinking water source for five million people. \u201cSo we\u2019re impacting drinking water supply, not just for us, but for everyone downstream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to the Waterkeeper\u2019s notice to the company, Neville Chemical\u2019s own data revealed as many as \u201c9,494 days of violations since July 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time they violate a particular contaminant is considered a violation day,\u201d Hulton VanTassel explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\"Yellow\t\t\t<\/a>
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She said that if the DEP had taken enforcement action against the company, the Waterkeeper would not be legally allowed to step in. \u201cBut there was no notice of violation and enforcement action,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why we\u2019re able to step in using the Clean Water Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither the DEP nor Neville Chemical responded to requests for comment. They have two months to respond to the Waterkeeper\u2019s notice of intent to sue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not doing this because we\u2019re anti-industry,\u201d Hulton VanTassel said. \u201cWe just want to see change, and one step at a time at each facility that we work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we have the right to clean water, both federally and in the state of Pennsylvania,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The non-profit Three Rivers Waterkeeper, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates, has sent a 60-day notice to Neville Chemical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13413,73,75,74,2878],"class_list":["post-180550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-ohio-river","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-water-pollution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}