Perma-Fix fined over issues before purchase of Richland plant

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

Perma-Fix consent agreement/final order
http://media.tri-cityherald.com/smedia/2008/09/29/23/Permafix_CAFO.source.prod_affiliate.13.pdf

Perma-Fix Northwest Richland will pay a penalty of $304,500 after the Environmental Protection Agency found waste treatment problems stemming from the previous ownership of the Richland plant.

EPA and the Washington State Department of Ecology inspected the plant March 6, 2007, when it was owned by Pacific EcoSolutions, or PEcoS, and issued a notice of violation June 14, 2007, on problems identified during the inspection. That was one day after Perma-Fix Northwest took ownership of the plant.

All but one issue was resolved within 60 days of Perma-Fix taking over the plant and the remaining issue was resolved within 90 days.

"Perma-Fix ended all the issues and we ended up with the bill," said Richard Grondin, Perma-Fix Northwest's general manager.

The plant, on 45 acres on Battelle Boulevard, treats low-level radioactive waste and low-level radioactive waste mixed with hazardous chemicals. Much of the waste comes from the nearby Hanford nuclear reservation, but Perma-Fix also accepts waste from other Department of Energy sites and commercial waste from the nuclear industry, utilities and hospitals.

Perma-Fix has made extensive changes to the plant's ventilation system and purchased equipment to allow remote handling of waste at a cost of more than $1 million, Grondin said.

Within 90 days of taking ownership of the plant, it had disposed of low-level waste mixed with chemicals that had been at the facility for three to four years, he said. In addition, it had disposed of almost 800,000 pounds of low-level radioactive waste that had been at the plant for six or seven years, which was not an issue in the EPA settlement agreement, he said.

The settlement agreement listed seven violations, starting with a finding that PEcoS had been storing 42 containers of radioactive waste mixed with hazardous chemicals for more than one year. Its permit required it to treat and ship such waste it generates on-site within a year.

PEcoS also had eight drums of PCB waste it had stored for more than a year. It had previously received extensions to continue storing that waste, but the last extension had expired months earlier.

In a third violation, EPA found a shipment of 219 drums were brought to PEcoS for processing with no indication that PCBs were present. PCBs were found in one drum, but it was not handled as required, according to EPA.

PEcoS also did not correctly follow procedures for dust contaminated with cadmium, with EPA finding problems ranging from its failure to identify the hazard to its disposal. Other violations included failing to label containers of waste and not following requirements for shipping manifests.

In June 2007, EPA gave Perma-Fix 60 days to solve problems or be barred from accepting waste shipments from federal Superfund sites. Perma-Fix resolved six of the issues within 60 days but requested an extension to allow for sampling of the PCB waste and disposing of it.

That issue also was resolved within 90 days with no interruption of Perma-Fix's ability to accept waste.

"It is critical that facilities like Perma-Fix that handle hazardous waste and PCB waste manage it properly or face penalties," said Mike Bussell, EPA's director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement in Seattle, in a statement. "Properly managing hazardous waste and PCB waste is absolutely critical to protecting both workers and the surrounding community and environment."

Perma-Fix said it proposed that instead of paying the fine the money be spent on a project that would benefit the environment, but EPA rejected its proposal. Other recent fines related to Hanford have been used for projects such as building a greenhouse for native plants, making improvements at Hanford to protect worker health and purchasing boats and equipment to respond to chemical spills in the Mid-Columbia.

* Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com