EPA settles air quality and improper chemical storage violations
The agency fined Veolia ES Technical Solutions, a subsidiary of Veolia Environmental Services North America $95,000 for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) violations.
EPA settled with DuPont, who agreed to pay a $80,000 penalty, regarding Clean Air Act violations at their Washington Works Facility in West Virginia.
A settlement of more than $75,000 was reached with Pretium Packaging Plants in Pennsylvania and Iowa due to violations of the Clean Air Act’s risk management program.
Veolia’s civil penalty
EPA hit Veolia with the civil penalty for failing to properly manage the PCBs at its Jefferson Avenue facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
Violations came from inspections in 2008 and 2010. EPA found the company used PCB-contaminated structures and improperly stored and disposed of PCBs, breaching the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.
PCBs are man-made organic chemicals used in industrial equipment, plastics, and cooling oil for electrical transformers. More than 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were manufactured before the EPA banned the production in 1978 but many PCB-containing materials are still in use.
DuPont settlement
The settlement involving DuPont, the US, and the State of West Virginia, was filed in federal district court in Charleston, West Virginia by the US Department of Justice.
DuPont agreed to pay an $800,000 civil penalty, and implement safeguards to limit emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde, methanol and acetal.
The violations, which are alleged to have begun in 2007 included failures such as monitoring pumps, valves, and connectors; calibrating monitoring equipment and identifying and reporting equipment containing HAPs.
The proposed consent decree, which was filed in the Southern District of West Virginia, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.
Pretium flouorine troubles
Pretium Packaging, will pay a $75,860 penalty to settle alleged violations of federal risk management requirements at two plastic bottle manufacturing facilities.
One site is in Manchester, Pennsylvania and another now-closed facility in Muscatine, Iowa.
Alleged violations involved fluorine, an extremely hazardous substance.
EPA said that Pretium’s Pennsylvania facility did not have adequate safeguards in place for the fluorine process equipment, did not file a risk management plan in a timely manner and had not updated emergency contact information.
Pretium also allegedly failed to submit a risk management plan for fluorine at its Muscatine facility which ceased operations in October 2010.
The company did not admit liability for the alleged violations but has certified that it is in compliance with the regulations.
