One company's waste may be another's product, but trading it
without authorization is a whole 'nother ballgame, according to the EPA.
On Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010, the EPA and the U.S. Justice
Department jointly announced that Air Products LLC has agreed to pay nearly
$1.5 million in civil penalties to resolve hazardous waste mismanagement
violations at its Pasadena, Texas, chemical manufacturing facility. The
settlement resolves RCRA violations in transferring spent acid to the
neighboring Agrifos fertilizer manufacturing plant.
The company, a manufacturer of chemicals used in the
manufacture of polyurethane and hydrogen gas, operates its facility on a
105-acre tract of property adjacent to the Agrifos fertilizer plant. For many
years, the company purchased acid product from Agrifos and returned a spent
acid stream that Air Products had used in its operations. In April 2006,
inspectors from EPA and the Texas CEQ observed that the return acid stream was
a spent acid that was being used to make land-applied fertilizer. Agrifos was
not authorized to accept hazardous waste from other facilities.
In its press release, the EPA noted finding the case similar
to parts of its enforcement program for mining. The company does not conduct
mining or mineral processing, but it sent the spent acid stream to a facility
that does – the Agrifos fertilizer plant.
As part of the settlement, the company has agreed to
continue to manage the spent acid on-site and not ship it to Agrifos or any
other facility not authorized to accept it.
The agency has, since 2003, stepped up its enforcement of the
phosphoric acid industry because, according to the agency, of the high risk of
releases of acidic wastewaters at these facilities, which can cause groundwater
contamination and fish kills. A 2007 incident at the Agrifos phosphoric acid
facility in Houston released 50 million gallons of acidic hazardous wastewater
into the Houston Ship Channel.
More information on the settlement can be found
at
www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/rcra/airproducts.html.
