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PA ILLEGAL STORAGE OF HAZ. WASTES LEADS TO CONVICTION

Release Date: 10/4/96
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PA ILLEGAL STORAGE OF HAZ. WASTES LEADS TO CONVICTION

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1996

ILLEGAL STORAGE OF HAZARDOUS WASTES LEADS TO CONVICTION FOR OREGON PLATING FIRM OWNER

On Sept. 30, James Powell Taylor, owner of Continental Plating Inc., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., to criminal charges of unlawfully transporting hazardous waste and unlawfully storing and disposing of hazardous waste. Both are felonies under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The environmental crimes took place from 1991 through May 1996. During this period, Taylor transported and stored two full 1,000-gallon plating tanks and 22 fifty-five gallon drums containing hazardous waste (including arsenic and cyanide) at an unlocked and unsupervised storage lot in Eugene. During the approximate five years of storage, the uncovered plating tanks overflowed while the corroded drums leaked, thereby releasing hazardous contents into the environment. Twenty-two drums, containing plating waste with unsafe pH levels, were stored within 50 yards of a residence where children lived and played. The uncovered plating tanks were within 38 feet of an automotive transmission repair facility that customers and employees regularly occupied. Taylor faces a maximum of five years imprisonment on each count. EPA's Criminal Investigation Division investigated this case.

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