EPA Enforcement Roundup: Week of 8/5

The EPA Enforcement Roundup gives you insight into how and why US EPA and state partners assess penalties for environmental noncompliance. 

All violations or claims discussed below are alleged only unless we say otherwise, and we withhold the names of organizations and individuals to protect their privacy.

Your EPA Enforcement Roundup for this week:

A hydraulic rotary actuator manufacturer will pay $64,984 for alleged Clean Water Act violations at its facility in Enumclaw, Washington.

EPA officials claim several violations of the company’s NPDES industrial stormwater permit were found during a January 2023 inspection. The alleged violations included failures to:

• Maintain a Stormwater Pollution Control Plan
• Sample and monitor stormwater discharges
• Maintain structural controls and measures
• Conduct routine site inspections

EPA also claims inspectors found a discharge through the facility’s outfall that the company was unaware of. The facility will improve its permit compliance by sampling and monitoring, reviewing and revising its Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, maintaining stormwater control measures, conducting routine site inspections, and reporting and keeping records as required by the company’s stormwater permit.

An asphalt contractor settled with US EPA to resolve alleged Clean Air Act permitting program violations.

For several months in 2021, the company operated a portable hot mix asphalt plant on the Navajo Nation without a Tribal Minor New Source Review (NSR) permit to control air pollutants, says EPA. The company will pay a civil penalty of $72,128 as part of the settlement.

When not controlled by an enforceable permit limit, the asphalt plant had the potential to emit carbon monoxide (CO) in a quantity of 250 tons, which exceeded air pollution limits under the NSR permitting program.

Sites operating hot mix asphalt plants subject to regulation under the Tribal Minor NSR Program can apply for a general air quality permit. Still, this general permit must be obtained before the construction and operation of the regulated source.

A petroleum refinery faces a $102,920 penalty for alleged hazardous waste management violations in New Mexico.

Per the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), the refinery was a Large Quantity Generator of hazardous waste at the time of inspection on April 1, 2021. According to an NMED inspector, the company stored hazardous waste for greater than 90 days without a permit and failed to:

• Keep satellite containers of hazardous waste closed during accumulation as required.
• Minimize the possibility of fire, explosion, or sudden or non-sudden releases.
• Conduct weekly inspections of the hazardous waste accumulation areas.
• Label satellite containers of hazardous waste with the words “hazardous waste.”
• Label containers of hazardous waste with an indication of the hazard(s) presented by the waste.
• Meet requirements for hazardous waste stored in tanks.

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Tags: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, EPA Enforcement Roundup, hazardous waste management