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Two Alaska facilities and one Washington school district fined for PCB violations

Release Date: 03/29/2006
Contact Information: Daniel Duncan, (206) 553-6693, duncan.daniel@epa.gov Tony Brown, (206) 553-1203, brown.anthony@epa.gov

(Anchorage, Fairbanks, AK. & Kent, WA. - Mar. 29, 2006) The Seattle office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today the settlement of three enforcement cases related to the improper storage and disposal of polychlorinated bi-phenyls (PCBs). The violations were discovered by EPA after the routine review of shipping and disposal records that are required for regulated amounts of PCBs under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

According to Daniel Duncan, EPA’s Region 10 PCB Program Coordinator, “Facilities that store PCBs need to be aware of their notification and storage obligations under TSCA. We’ll continue to review the reports filed under the PCB regulations to determine proper compliance with the storage and disposal rules.”

After negotiated settlements, the total of the EPA penalties paid in the three cases was $6,080, as follows:

1) Golden Valley Electric Association, Fairbanks, Alaska, was fined $880 for storing PCB waste for more than two years prior to disposal.

2) Analytica Group, Anchorage, Alaska, was fined $2,763 for storing PCB waste for more than one year prior to disposal and for failing to notify the EPA and failing to obtain a PCB activity identification number.

3) Kent School District, Kent, Washington, was fined $2,437 under a December 13, 2005, agreement for storing PCB waste for more than two years prior to disposal and for failing to notify EPA and failing to obtain a PCB activity identification number. It is unlikely that school children were exposed to PCBs during this two year period.

"School districts need to "go the extra mile' to insure that PCB waste is properly stored and disposed of. We can't gamble with kid’s health," said Scott Downey, EPA's Pesticide and Toxics Manager in Seattle.

Concern over the toxicity and persistence in the environment of PCBs led Congress in 1976 to enact prohibitions on the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of PCBs, including "cradle to grave" (i.e., from manufacture to disposal) management of PCBs in the United States.

EPA's PCB Homepage (epa.gov/pcb/)