U.S. EPA fines Romic Environmental Technologies Corp. $97,000 for hazardous waste violations

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently reached a $97,000 settlement with Romic Environmental Technologies for violating federal waste handling and storage laws.

Romic Environmental Technologies is located at 6760 West Allison Road on the Gila River Indian community near Chandler, Ariz. It is a hazardous waste storage and treatment facility. The company performs solvent recycling, blending, aerosol can processing, bulking, container crushing, and waste consolidation for off-site disposal

" It is essential that companies comply with hazardous waste regulations in order to protect human health and prevent impacts to the environment" said Nancy Lindsay, director of the EPA’s Waste Management Division for the Pacific Southwest region. "The EPA will continue to ensure that facilities who generate and manage hazardous waste do so in accordance with the law"

The EPA cited the Romic facility for improperly handling hazardous waste, failing to minimize a possible accidental release, failing to take all necessary measures to ensure fires, explosions and releases did not occur and failing to notify government officials of a release of hydrogen peroxide.

Under the settlement, Romic will pay a penalty of $20,427. Under the settlement Romic has also agreed to clean up ten open dumps on the Gila River Indian Reservation, costing the company a minimum of $77,000. The supplemental environmental project requires the company to pay for the gathering, loading and hauling of solid waste from the various locations throughout the reservation. The EPA consulted with the Gila River Indian Community’s Department of Environmental Quality in helping select the open dumps to be cleaned up under the project.

The settlement resolves the EPA’s April 24 complaint regarding a series of releases into the air at its facility on April 5 and the company’s subsequent failure to implement emergency contingency operations and failure to minimize the possibility of a release.

In August 2005, the EPA fined Romic $67,888 for multiple hazardous waste violations at its facility. The company corrected the violations and spent $100,800 on life-saving equipment for the Gila River Indian Community Fire Department and air monitoring and meteorological equipment for the Gila River Indian Community Department of Environmental Quality.

On August 16, the EPA proposed denying a Romic permit application to continue operating its hazardous waste facility. The EPA is holding a public hearing tonight at 6 p.m. at the Gila River Indian Reservation District 4 Service Center in Sacaton, Ariz.