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So. Cal. metal facility agrees to $45K penalty for violating haz waste laws

Release Date: 03/30/2006
Contact Information: Francisco Arcaute, (213) 244-1815

LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently settled with a Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. metal decorating firm requiring the company to pay an $11,000 fine, and spend $34,000 to establish an environmental management system for violations of federal hazardous waste regulations.

The environmental management system will help identify pollution prevention opportunities and potentially result in improvements beyond federal requirements at Western Metal Decorating, located at 8875 Industrial Lane in Rancho Cucamonga.

"Hazardous waste regulations protect human health and the environment," said Jeffrey Scott, director of the EPA’s Waste Management Division for the Pacific Southwest region. “We are pleased that Western Metal Decorating is taking advantage of our supplemental environmental project program and implementing an environmental management system that will help prevent further violations in the future.”

In October 2004, the EPA inspected Western Metal Decorating; finding the following alleged hazardous waste violations:

• Not closing and labeling hazardous waste containers;
• Storing waste longer than allowed;
• Not conducting weekly inspection of hazardous waste storage areas;
• Not providing annual waste refresher training.

Western Metal Decorating specializes in coating large rolls of metal with polyester-based coatings, prior to the metal being made into a product.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act oversees how to safely manage and dispose of huge amounts of waste generated nationwide. For more information on the RCRA program, please visit:

https://www.epa.gov/compliance/basics/cleanup.html#rcra