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UTAH MAN SENTENCED FOR ILLEGAL PCB STORAGE

Release Date: 06/27/97
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UTAH MAN SENTENCED FOR ILLEGAL PCB STORAGE

On June 16, Roy Hart, former owner of North American Environmental (NAE) Inc.,
Clearfield, Utah, was sentenced on one count of violating the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Hart will serve
six months home confinement with work release authorization, three years probation,
and was ordered to pay $1,347,922.28 in restitution to the private parties who
cleaned up abandoned polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste at the NAE facility in
Clearfield.  In December 1990, EPA Region VIII officials notified NAE that it had
lost interim status to operate as a commercial PCB storage facility.  NAE was
directed not to accept any further waste and was told to dispose of existing PCB
waste at its site within 30 days.  NAE continued to accept PCB waste for storage
after the 30 day period had expired and did not dispose of the waste already stored
at its facility.  Additionally, NAE claimed financial inability to comply with
EPA’s directives and subsequently its Clearfield PCB storage site was abandoned.  
In July 1991, EPA inspected NAE’s facility and found an estimated one million pounds
of PCB oil and debris and hazardous wastes stored in drums.  EPA then conducted a
cleanup operation.  PCBs have been identified as a possible cause of cancer in people.  
The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division with the assistance
of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center.