We’ve heard all about traces of drugs  in our drinking water.

Unfortunately, that may seem pretty minor in comparison if you happen to live near a drug production plant that’s located on a waterway.  According to a Pharmalot report, Merck violated the Clean Water Act with three chemical discharges into the water supplies of Pennsylvania, in the US. One of these discharges was so extreme that the entire city of Philadelphia had to shut down drinking water temporarily.

Nice.

For that little misstep, Merck paid a fine of more than $20 million in 2007.

So… lesson learned?

Not quite.

The same year that fine was paid, a Merck facility in Pennsylvania dumped ammonia and ethylene glycol into the water and neglected to inform the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That violation, coupled with a similar 2004 abuse recently cost the company another $1.5 million in fines.

What we have here, apparently, is a repeat offender. So if you had to bet, would you bet it won’t happen again?

Not me.