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Connecticut Holding Company Pays Fine for PCB Violations

Release Date: 10/21/2010
Contact Information: Paula Ballentine, 617-918-1027

(Boston, Mass. – October 21, 2010) - The owner of an inoperative Bridgeport, Conn. brass facility has agreed to pay $52,000 for violating federal regulations covering the disposal, use, storage and marking violations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The Fairfield-based Connecticut Transfer and Recycling Co., LLC. (CTC) owns the former Bridgeport Brass Company facility in Bridgeport. In 2008, CTC hired a waste transporter to pump out waste oil from an electrical transformer and two 55-gallon drums located at the facility. CTC’s waste oil was not initially identified as containing PCBs and was mixed with waste oil from other companies by the waste transporter and sent off to be recycled. PCBs, however, were discovered in the combined waste and eventually traced back to the waste oil from CTC’s facility.

This information prompted CT DEP to inspect CTC’s facility for compliance with TSCA and PCB regulations. The inspection revealed several federal violations, including the improper disposal of PCBs via two spilled or leaking transformers; and failure to comply with various use, storage and marking requirements by not labeling a PCB transformer, not labeling PCB storage areas and not meeting various PCB storage and dating requirements.

CTC has also agreed to cleanup the PCB spill areas around the transformers.

PCBs are persistent in the environment and are suspected carcinogens. Exposure to PCBs can cause liver problems and skin rashes.

More information:
Appropriate ways to manage PCBs (www.epa.gov/region01/enforcement/tsca/index.html#pcb)
Basic information on PCBs (www.epa.gov/pcb)

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