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EPA Seeks Penalties Totaling More than $22,000 from Three Transporters of Hazardous Wastes

Release Date: 07/15/2003
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office, 617-918-1008

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking penalties totaling $22,880 from three companies it claims violated environmental laws regulating the transport and export of hazardous wastes from the United States to Canada.

In three complaints filed June 30 and July 1, EPA’s New England office claims Onyx Industries of Anjou, Quebec, Canada; Dart Trucking Co. of Canfield, Ohio; and Ameritech Environmental Services of Eliot, Maine violated the Universal Hazardous Waste Manifest regulations of the Resource and Conservation Recovery Act on numerous occasions, while transporting hazardous wastes from the United States into Canada .

The regulations regarding hazardous waste manifests are intended to track the movement of these wastes from generators to disposal sites, and to create clear lines of accountability among all participants to ensure that these wastes are properly managed during transportation. The three cases are targeted to those transporters with the most egregious records of violations.

EPA is seeking $7,040 from Onyx Industries; $8,360 from Dart Trucking; and $7,480 from Ameritech Environmental Services.

“We hope these complaints send a message to transporters operating between the US and Canada that the EPA takes the manifest requirements seriously and will continue to pursue penalties for violations regarding the illegal transportation and export of hazardous waste,” said Robert W. Varney, administrator of EPA’s New England office.

According to EPA’s complaints, Dart Trucking accepted hazardous wastes for transport without ensuring that a Massachusetts-based generator had properly completed and signed numerous manifests. Dart Tucking also failed to properly indicate on several manifests its acknowledgment of receipt of hazardous waste shipments from the generator prior to transport. All three companies failed to properly complete numerous manifests when leaving the jurisdiction of the United States and entering Canada at the U.S./Canadian border in Vermont.