The report states that Campbell’s admitted to violating the Clean Water Act at least 5,400 times between April 2018 and December 2024, with the incidents occurring at the canning factory located in Napoleon, Ohio.
“Campbell’s admission that it committed these violations will speed this case toward a trial that will decide what steps the company must take to curb its pollution and how large a civil penalty should be imposed. That’s great news for the people who live along the Maumee River and Lake Erie, who want prompt action on reducing sources of the toxic algae in their local waters,” said John Rumpler, Clean Water Program Director for Environment Ohio. “We appreciate Campbell’s willingness to work cooperatively with us and the federal government to solve its compliance problems, rather than spending time and effort contesting clear-cut violations of the Clean Water Act.”
And doing some more math at it, there are 1762 weekdays between those dates. Regulators probably rounded up to 1800 to account for the occasional weekend operation. Then the math comes out to three dumps per day, one for each work shift.
Regulators most likely found evidence of regular dumping, and then did the math backwards to the statue of limitations.