EPA and DOE to Resolve Hanford Hazardous Waste Violations

From EPA:

EPA and DOE to Resolve Hanford Hazardous Waste Violations

Contact: Mark MacIntyre/EPA-Seattle  206-553-7302/macintyre.mark@epa.gov

(Seattle, WA – January 28, 2015)  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) have resolved alleged violations of hazardous waste requirements at the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington.

By ensuring that hazardous waste management is conducted in accordance with all applicable requirements, EPA helps protect cleanup workers, first responders and the public from unnecessary exposure to hazardous chemicals.  This action also protects the environment by ensuring proper cleanup and closure of hazardous waste storage sites.

The Consent Agreement and Final Order, signed by EPA and US DOE today, addresses two independent Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations, which occurred in 2013.

In the first case, EPA alleged that US DOE moved 136 fifty-five gallon drums of hazardous waste from a permitted area to an unpermitted area, without seeking or obtaining the required permit authorization.

In the second case, US DOE submitted a closure plan (in October, 2013) for eight storage units that lacked all the required information as required under an earlier settlement. The plan did not detail how and when any remaining waste and contamination would be removed and disposed of as the project was completed.  US DOE is now working with the Washington Department of Ecology to amend the plan to include the needed closure information.

As part of this agreement, US DOE will pay a $44,722 penalty.

For more about EPA’s RCRA & TSCA enforcement role at the Hanford Reservation: http://go.usa.gov/eXDF

For more about EPA’s Superfund cleanup role at the Hanford Reservation:http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/cleanup.nsf/sites/Hanford