The Washington state Department of Ecology has fined Perma-Fix Northwest $36,400 for the improper handling of some mixed dangerous and radioactive waste apparently left by the last owner of the company’s plant in Richland. Perma-Fix purchased the facility from Pacific EcoSolutions in 2007. The plant treats, size reduces, and packages low-level radioactive and mixed waste from the nearby Hanford Site and elsewhere.
State inspectors at Perma-Fix noticed a drum beneath an unused waste shredder that was partially filled with a substance that looked like kitty litter. The drum was on a pad placed on grating, and more of the substance had fallen through the grating. In total, the state found 38 pounds of the substance. When analyzed it was determined to be cadmium in quantities high enough to be considered dangerous waste, along with some radioactive substances, including cobalt, cesium, and uranium. The state issued the penalty for Perma-Fix’s failure to properly designate the waste, storing waste in a non-permitted area, and failing to inspect an area that was found to contain dangerous, potentially cancer-causing substances.
“Under the terms of their operating permit, they had an obligation to inspect all areas of their operation and ensure that any dangerous, radioactive or mixed waste was identified and cleaned up,” said Alex Smith, the Department of Ecology’s nuclear waste program manager, in a statement. “Had anything happened to disturb this material and made it airborne, it would have posed serious health risks to anyone who inhaled it.”
Richard Grondin, general manager of Perma-Fix Northwest, said the public was in no danger because the waste was contained within a building. Workers rarely entered the area where the waste was found because Perma-Fix did not use the shredder, he said. No one was exposed to the waste, and the matter has been resolved, Grondin added.
John Price, the Tri-Party Agreement section manager for the Department of Ecology said, “They have done everything we asked them to do to correct the violation. They have worked really hard.” State and federal inspectors have checked the plant on multiple occasions since Perma-Fix took over operations, and had not previously noted the waste as being in violation of the company’s permit.
The Department of Ecology initially assessed a $52,000 penalty, then reduced the fine by a third when Perma-Fix entered into an expedited settlement agreement. The settlement requires the company to waive its rights to appeal. Expedited settlement agreements save the state and companies like Perma-Fix the high costs of litigation, the state said in a statement.
Perma-Fix was previously fined $187,620 in 2013 by the Environmental Protection Agency for storing waste in an area not covered by a permit for three years, even though the time limit was three months.
