NASA gets $25,000 fine for washing out a concrete pump on the ground

NASA gets bill

In February of last year, the Kennedy Space Center got fined $25,000 in connection with work in 2006 to install a new, lightweight concrete roof on the Vehicle Assembly Building. The contractor washed out a concrete pumping apparatus with water and discharged the water underground. The water had a higher alkalinity than allowed, said Allard Beutel, a spokesman at KSC. No source of drinking water was contaminated, he said.

NASA took full responsibility, so the contractor was not fined.

"We did not expect that level of waste," Beutel said. "We thought they were following all the proper procedures for this thing."