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Safety-Kleen Systems Branch Facility in St. Charles, Mo., to Pay $26,782 Penalty for Community Right-to-Know Violations

Release Date: 07/11/2011
Contact Information: Chris Whitley, 913-551-7394, [email protected]

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., July 11, 2011) - Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc., a manufacturer and seller of industrial cleaning products and equipment, has agreed to pay a $26,782 civil penalty to the United States to settle three violations of environmental regulations related to the public reporting of toxic chemicals at its branch facility in St. Charles, Mo.

According to an administrative consent agreement filed by EPA Region 7 in Kansas City, Kan., in December 2010 the Agency conducted an inspection of Safety-Kleen Systems’ facility at 4526 Towne Court in St. Charles, and found the company had failed to submit reports to EPA and the State of Missouri concerning quantities of certain toxic chemicals that were manufactured, processed or otherwise used at the facility during 2008. Those chemicals were ethylene glycol, lead and polycyclic aromatic compounds.

Information about potential health concerns and environmental effects associated with releases of and exposures to ethylene glycol, lead and polycyclic aromatic compounds is available online at www.atsdr.cdc.gov/substances/index.asp.

Submission of the annual toxic chemical reports is a requirement of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Under EPCRA regulations, companies of certain size are required to submit annual reports to EPA and state authorities listing the amounts of regulated chemicals that their facilities release into the environment through routine activities or as a result of accidents. The reports provide an important source of information to emergency planners and responders, and residents of surrounding communities.

EPCRA was enacted by Congress in 1986 as an outgrowth of concern over the protection of the public from chemical emergencies and dangers. After the catastrophic accidental release of methyl isocyanate at Union Carbide’s Bhopal, India, facility in December 1984, and a later toxic release from a West Virginia chemical plant, it was evident that national public disclosure of toxic release inventory information was needed.