Publication Summary

An analysis of hazardous waste management facilities and assessment of the problems, incidents and contamination associated with hazardous waste management facilities in Washington State, with an emphasis on cleanup costs.

Reports from publicly available electronic data sets maintained by the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were analyzed to identify hazardous waste management facilities and assess the problems, incidents and contamination associated with hazardous waste management facilities in Washington State, with an emphasis on cleanup costs. Based on this analysis, there are approximately 105 current and former hazardous waste management facilities in Washington State, 66 hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities, 7 hazardous waste recyclers, 14 used oil processors, 6 facilities that both treat, store or dispose hazardous waste and carry out hazardous waste recycling, 4 facilities that both treat, store or dispose hazardous waste and process used oil, 6 facilities that carry out all three activities, and 2 facilities where the facility-type is not specified. Of these 105 hazardous waste management facilities, the majority, 83 (79%), are identified as having cleanup obligations as evidenced by the fact that current or past cleanup activities are listed in one of the publicly available electronic data sets that we reviewed.