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星期一, 11月 09, 2015

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES COMPANY TO PAY $150,000 TO ADDRESS HAZARDOUS WASTE VIOLATIONS

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES COMPANY TO PAY $150,000 TO ADDRESS HAZARDOUS WASTE VIOLATIONS

Company Must Conduct Environmental Audit and Implement Proper Transportation, Handling, and Management Practices Under Agreement with AG’s Office and MassDEP

BOSTON —A Salisbury-based environmental services company will pay $150,000 to settle allegations that it treated hazardous waste without a license while claiming that it was recycling the hazardous waste, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today. The civil fine also settles allegations that the company didn’t properly manage, treat and label the hazardous waste it was transporting, storing and handling at its facilities.

According to the consent judgment approved Friday by Judge Leibensperger in Suffolk Superior Court, ENPRO Services, Inc. is required to submit to an audit of its environmental management practices by an independent auditor. The company also is required to cease all illegal treatment activities and to bring its facilities and its hazardous waste management practices into compliance with the Hazardous Waste Management Act and the Massachusetts Clean Air Act.  

“This settlement demonstrates the serious commitment of the Commonwealth to the safety and protection of the public and the environment from the improper transport and management of hazardous waste,” said AG Healey. “We expect companies handling hazardous waste to comply with all aspects of our laws and not to take shortcuts.”  

“The proper treatment of hazardous waste is important, because of its potential to impact the environment and public health,” said Commissioner Martin Suuberg of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). “We are pleased with this settlement, because it not  only requires the violations to be quickly corrected, but it also requires that an independent third-party audit the company’s operations in Massachusetts, which will lead to improved environmental management systems at the company going forward.”

As an environmental services company, ENPRO offers hazardous waste transportation services to its customers who generate hazardous waste, including gasoline-and-water mixtures.  Gasoline-and-water mixtures are hazardous wastes under MassDEP regulations because they can pose a hazard to human health and the environment.

The complaint alleges that since December 2010, ENPRO collected, improperly transported, and treated over a hundred and forty thousand gallons of gas-and-water mixtures. ENPRO improperly treated the gasoline-and-water mixtures by screening and manipulating the mixtures between storage tanks at the defendant’s unlicensed facility on Parker Street in Newburyport to produce a higher quality mixture it then sold for a profit. 

According to the complaint, ENPRO claimed that this treatment was subject to certain regulatory exemptions for recycling that permitted it to avoid licensing costs and safety and tracking requirements.

The AG’s Office also alleges in its complaint that in 2012, ENPRO accumulated more than six times its limit of waste oil at its facility on Cary Avenue in Newburyport without properly notifying MassDEP. The complaint also alleges that ENPRO failed to keep documentation of the amount of waste oil received or generated on the site and the amount recycled.  According to the complaint, ENPRO failed to label containers of waste oil and failed to keep records showing that it maintained its fuel dispenser and had trained personnel using it. 

Of the $150,000 in civil penalties, $42,500 is suspended pending full compliance with the consent judgment.

This case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Louis Dundin and Assistant Attorney General Betsy Harper, Deputy Chief of Attorney General Healey’s Environmental Protection Division, with assistance from Colleen McConnell, MassDEP Senior Regional Counsel, as well as Environmental Analysts Matthew Barber and Martha Bolis in the Northeastern Regional Office of MassDEP in Wilmington. 

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