AKRON (Nov. 8, 2010) — Oil recycler Safety-Kleen Systems Inc. has agreed to pay $210,000 in two settlements to resolve violations of federal toxic substance regulations at the company's facilities in New York and several New England states, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Safety-Kleen, one of the nation's largest oil recycling companies, also agree to improve its procedures for sampling and handling polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
Federal regulations prohibit the shipping of materials that contain PCBs above 50 parts per million without proper documentation and require waste oil containing PCBs to be handled as hazardous waste.
Inspections conducted by the EPA at seven Safety-Kleen facilities in New York, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut revealed that the company had received used oil containing PCBs above 50 ppm. The company then shipped the oil without preparing the documents required for the transport of hazardous substances.
One of the two settlements covers violations at several facilities in New York state including Buffalo, Lackawanna, Syracuse and West Nyack. It includes a penalty of $130,000 and operational improvements at Safety-Kleen facilities in New York and New Jersey.The company will pay an additional $80,000 to settle toxic substance violations at facilities in several New England states.
This report appeared in Waste & Recycling News, an Akron-based sister publication of Tire Business.