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EPA Reaches Settlement with CWM for Violation of PCB Rules at Facility in Model City

Release Date: 06/19/2002
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(#02062) NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with Chemical Waste Management, Inc. for illegally disposing of 180 large capacitors containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at its Model City, New York landfill during the fall of 2000. Federal law requires that such electrical items be destroyed via high temperature incineration. EPA has assessed a penalty of $78,475 against the firm for this and other violations of Toxic Substances Control Act regulations. As a condition of the settlement, CWM voluntarily removed the capacitors and arranged for their proper disposal by incineration. The company’s federal PCB Disposal Approval, as well as its New York State permit, also require the facility to open containers and inspect their contents prior to disposing of a waste shipment in their landfill, which CWM failed to do in this case. CWM also failed in its obligation to record the accurate location of the containers in the landfill, which made recovery of the capacitors difficult. “Strict, continuous, daily compliance with the terms of federal law and state permits is the only way these kinds of facilities can properly safeguard the public’s health and the environment,” EPA Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny said. “We will continue to be vigilant in monitoring the activities of hazardous waste handling facilities in this region.” CWM reported the possibility of the violation almost two months after the material, which was shipped in three steel boxes, had been buried at the landfill. CWM spent more than $460,000 on the investigation into the location and the subsequent January 2002 removal of the buried containers. CWM then shipped the large PCB capacitors to the ONYX facility in Port Arthur, Texas where the items were incinerated on May 1, 2002. In addition to the fine for land filling large capacitors containing PCBs, the total assessed penalty also addressed: 1) CWM’s failing to notify EPA in a timely manner of manifest discrepancies related to the capacitors; 2) failing to properly designate the disposal coordinates of the three containers of capacitors in the landfill; and 3) improperly manifesting and exporting waste to Canada that was shown to contain PCBs. The exported waste has since been returned to the Model City facility and is awaiting proper disposal. As a result of these PCB violations, CWM has made changes in its PCB management and acceptance protocol at the Model City facility to prevent such violations in the future. The changes include an increase in trained staffing and supervision of the waste acceptance and approval process, additional steps to ensure inspection of containers where required, and improvements in waste tracking documentation. CWM will also be using advanced technology to pinpoint the location of future wastes placed in the landfill.