Two clean water advocates have filed a lawsuit against Ox Paperboard in U.S. District Court, accusing it of major pollution violations, reports Northern Virginia Daily. Ox Paperboard operates a recycled paperboard mill in Halltown, W.V.

The suit, filed March 3 and announced in a news release by the Shenandoah and Potomac Riverkeepers on March 10, states that Ox Paperboard violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants from its mill. Those discharges harm Flowing Spring Run and the Shenandoah River and, among other things, contribute to fish kills, it states.

The suit seeks to have Ox pay civil penalties in an amount equal to the number of violations proven at trial multiplied by the statutory maximum penalty of $33,500 per violation.

The riverkeepers state the mill has violated its pollution permit each month in a 30-month period that started in 2008, and that the average violation for one measure of pollution was nearly 3,000 percent more than permits allowed. Ox purchased the assets of the former Halltown Paperboard in December 2007.