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PCB TRANSFORMERS REMAIN FOCUS OF U.S. EPA ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS; SECOND CASE SETTLES FOR $11,000

Release Date: 2/1/2001
Contact Information: Lisa Fasano, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1587

     SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has fined Nevada Cement Company of Fernley, NV, $11,000 for failure to provide adequate warnings and records regarding the use of a PCB transformer.

     "PCBs are a highly toxic substance,"  said Enrique Manzanilla, the EPA's regional Cross-Media Division director.  "EPA is aggressively inspecting facilities to ensure compliance with 1998 federal requirements so we know where PCB transformers are located and how they are being handled."

     This case was initiated after a 1999 EPA inspection of a registered PCB transformer at Nevada Cement Company found various warning labels and records required for the use of PCB transformer were absent.
       
     PCBs are a man-made substance that was banned for production in the United States in 1978.  The federal Toxic Substances Control Act requires that PCB transformers be registered in order to track the use and proper disposal of such equipment.  Records are required to document the condition of the equipment and warnings are required to ensure workers and the public are aware that a hazardous substance is present.

     The EPA has identified PCBs as probable human carcinogens.  PCBs have also been shown to cause a number of serious noncancer health effects in animals, including impacts on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system, and endocrine system.  

     In 1998 more than 670 advisories were in effect to alert the US population to limit consumption of fish and wildlife due to possible PCB contamination (ranking PCBs second only to mercury as a source of such advisories).  The number of PCB spills from transformers has more than doubled during the past few years as the PCB equipment ages and such spills are more accurately recorded.

     This is the second of several enforcement actions the EPA will take to encourage owners of PCB transformers to register and properly handle their equipment.  The first, against Pacific Tube of City of Commerce, CA, for failure to register a PCB transformer, was reported on October 23, 2000.
Information on the Pacific Tube case can be found at https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/r9press.nsf/news.

Visit https://www.epa.gov/pcb/ for information on PCBs, as well as a list of companies that have registered PCB transformers.  Or go to https://www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/pcb/ for information on PCB activities in Region 9.