The owner and operator of a chemical distribution facility in Virginia has been ordered to pay a $612,339 penalty for multiple violations of federal and state hazardous waste storage regulations.
The judgement upheld the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) complaint citing violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which regulates the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. This federal law is designed to protect public health and the environment, and avoid costly clean-ups, by dictating the use of safe practices, greatly reducing the chances that hazardous waste will be released into the environment.
Violations included:
- Storage of hazardous waste in an open tank with no engineering assessment or air emission controls
- Storage of hazardous waste for greater than 90 days without a permit
- Failure to perform hazardous waste determinations on the wastes in the open tank, aerosol waste, and other wastes generated at the facility
- Failure to perform daily inspections
It was also ruled that the open tank had been improperly removed, without compliance with a RCRA closure plan, which must be submitted and approved by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
The company must also cease the unpermitted storage of hazardous waste, perform waste analyses, and submit and implement a closure plan for the site where the tank had been located.
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