EPA Enforcement Roundup: Week of 2/26

US businesses are subject to complex, overlapping environmental regulations related to air emissions, discharges to water, hazardous waste management and disposal, oil spills, chemical management, and more. Failure to comply with all applicable US EPA requirements can result in future liability and civil penalties as high as $100,000+ per day, per violation.

The EPA Enforcement Roundup highlights enforcement actions that offer insight into how and why US EPA and state partners assess penalties for noncompliance for environmental regulations.

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:

An environmental and industrial services company will pay $270,412 in penalties to resolve alleged RCRA violations.

The company’s Kimball, Nebraska facility operates as a hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facility (TSDF), according to EPA. During inspections of the facility between 2021 and 2023, EPA found the company failed to:

• Adequately manage hazardous waste containers.
• Minimize releases of hazardous waste to the environment.
• Maintain air emission controls.
• Maintain and operate a building as tested.
• Transmit waste from its facility within required time frames.
• Obtain a hazardous waste permit for areas not covered by the facility’s permits.

An oil and gas company agreed to a $9.5M settlement to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations and offset “past illegal emissions.”

The agreed-upon settlement includes $4M in penalties and at least $5.5M in design, operations, maintenance and monitoring improvements, and equipment replacements to ensure compliance with the Clean Air Act at 422 of its oil and gas well pads in Texas and New Mexico.

EPA says the company failed to capture and control air emissions from 23 of its sites, and that it identified these violations via field investigations and flyover surveillance.

EPA estimates an annual reduction in more than 9,650 tons of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). VOCs are a key component in ground-level smog which irritates the lungs and exacerbates lung-related illnesses.

A metal finishing company agrees to a $20,600 penalty to resolve hazardous waste violations alleged by IDEM.

The company, per the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, made numerous hazardous waste management errors. Because the company incorrectly determined its generator category, it also failed to comply with requirements for large quantity generators (LQGs) related to personnel training, contingency planning, reporting, and other common RCRA mistakes.

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