The EPA has lately ordered the world's largest metals and electronics recycler, based at the Port of Redwood City, Calif., to end its illegal discharge of toxic pollutants into the San Francisco Bay - and without any delay whatsoever.

The organization, known as Sims Metal Management, is currently one of the Bay Area's largest metal shredders. Last year, the EPA inspected the organization's facility and discovered the company had been discharging illegal amounts of copper, lead, mercury, PCBs and zinc into Redwood Creek, a tributary to the San Francisco Bay. Such discharges are a direct violation of the federally mandated Clean Water Act.

As a result, the organization will need to update its toxic pollutant monitoring and sampling capabilities by January 20, 2012.

The organization must also create and submit a plan to the EPA regarding the ways in which it will eliminate illegal discharges throughout the coming years. The EPA must receive the plan by March 20, 2012.

"The EPA is committed to protecting the Bay by ensuring compliance with environmental permits," said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "Companies such as Sims Metal Management, engaged in recycling our finite resources, must abide by the Clean Water Act."

For more information, please visit this link.