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EPA orders Saipan screen printer to stop discharging solid and hazardous wastes

Release Date: 12/30/2005
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, (808) 541-2711

(12/30/05 )
HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently ordered Everbright Company, Ltd. to stop discharging its solid and hazardous wastes on to its property and septic tank located in the Fina Sisu Village, Saipan.

“Any operation that generates solid and hazardous wastes needs to manage the waste properly to protect public health and the environment,” said Jeff Scott, Director of Waste Programs for the EPA Pacific Southwest Region. “This order will get the company to correct the violations and will result in a cleaner environment for the CNMI’s residents.”

The facility is a full service screen printing business and generates wastes such as toluene, turpentine, naphtha-based and other cleaning solvents, and waste ink.

In October 2005, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ Division of Environmental Quality at the request of the EPA, conducted an unannounced inspection of the Everbright Facility and found the company failing to collect all of its chemical wastes. Instead it was discharging the wastes to its septic tank, which in turn discharges into the soil via an outlet pipe. Any wastes in the septic tank that are not discharged into the soil are removed and discharged into the CNMI’s sewer system.

Inspectors also found the company was discharging solid and hazardous wastes to a stormwater ponding basin. They found evidence of a release of waste from a break in the waste storage area containment berm. The company also added a new, unauthorized wash-water discharge to the facility that discharges to the ground and the company continues to dispose of waste ink by air-drying and evaporation.

The company is ordered to stop all discharges and disposals of solid and hazardous wastes into the septic tank, stormwater ponding basin, sewer, ground surface, soil, and air at the facility. Everbright is also required to provide a report in 30 days to the EPA detailing how the company is properly managing all of its solid and hazardous wastes.