PERMA-FIX SETTLES WITH EPA OVER MANAGEMENT VIOLATIONS

Perma-Fix Northwest yesterday announced they will pay a $187,620 penalty and “improve onsite waste handling practices” as part of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The payment, due within 30 days, was negotiated down from a proposed fine of $215,000 related to violations discovered during a full site inspection of the company’s facility near Hanford in 2010. According to a March 2012 EPA report, Perma-Fix had not properly labeled 15 containers of baghouse ash as ‘dangerous’ wastes, violating a 2008 Consent Agreement and Final Order between the agency and the company. Some of those wastes were also temporarily stored in a building that was not permitted to house them. “Perma-Fix has agreed to manage their mixed waste more responsibly and according to all regulations,” Ed Kowalski, director of EPA’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement in Seattle, said in a statement. “When handling these types of waste, there’s simply no way it can be stored in a non-permitted area for three years when the regulations only allow three months.”