  |
|
|
Department of Ecology News Release - December 21, 2006
06-265
OLYMPIA - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) has fined Philip Services Corp. $16,000 for violating state hazardous waste management rules at its Tacoma facility.
Philip Services owns several hazardous waste treatment, storage and transfer sites in Washington, including a location in Tacoma, which operates as Burlington Environmental, Inc.
The Tacoma facility accepts hazardous and dangerous waste generated by businesses and other entities located in Washington as well as other states and some foreign countries. The company treats and/or stores these wastes prior to readying them for disposal by another contractor.
When Ecology staff members conducted their compliance inspection in May 2006, they found several potentially harmful items stored along with company-owned surplus equipment in an area that wasn't authorized for holding dangerous wastes. These items included two carbon filtration units containing dangerous waste, one paint extruder contaminated with paint waste and numerous high-intensity discharge lamp fixtures, some with broken mercury bulbs. All of these items were company-owned surplus equipment.
Of the wastes Ecology found, the contaminated paint extruder, which extracts paint from paint containers, and broken mercury bulbs from the lamps posed the greatest environmental and human health threats because of the direct exposure of the waste to the environment. The area where these were found is not permitted for storage of dangerous waste, and as a result, it was not routinely inspected or maintained for such use.
"Managing dangerous wastes for other businesses is a tremendous responsibility and is closely regulated," explained K Seiler, regional manager of Ecology's Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction program. "This violation by Philip Services warrants a serious response from Ecology because of the threats posed and significant violations of their permit for waste management."
Once Philip Services was made aware of the violation, the company took action to properly address the storage and disposal requirements for these items.
"We are committed to being a responsible steward of the environment," explained Paul Schultz, Philip Services' regional manager. "We are examining our practices regarding surplus equipment to prevent a similar event from occurring."
Philip Services has 30 days to appeal this fine by applying to the Department of Ecology for relief or filing an appeal with the Pollution Control Hearings Board.
# # #
Contact: Kim Schmanke, public information manager, 360-407-6239
For more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/hwtr/hwfacilities/pages/choose_a_tsd.html
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
