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Nonpareil Corporation Pays Over $95,000 for Failure to Properly Report Hazardous Chemicals

Release Date: 09/08/2009
Contact Information: Suzanne Powers, EPA EPCRA Program, (360) 753-9475, powers.suzanne@epa.gov Tony Brown, EPA Public Affairs, (206) 553-1203, brown.anthony@epa.gov

Company agrees to spend over $77,000 to replace pumps at its Teton Valley Ranch facility to reduce risk of ammonia release.
(Blackfoot, Idaho – September 8, 2009) Nonpareil Corporation has settled with the Environmental Protection Agency and agreed to pay an $18,281 penalty for violating the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) by failing to properly report the storage of ammonia at its Teton Valley Ranch facility located in Mountain Home, Idaho.

Nonpareil failed to file Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory Forms with local emergency response entities in Idaho.

"People’s safety and preventing chemical accidents are a top priority for EPA,” said Edward Kowalski, Director of EPA’s Office of Compliance & Enforcement in Seattle. "We’re committed to reducing the likelihood and severity of accidental chemical releases by enforcing the law, protecting people and the environment and creating a level playing field for industry.”

In addition to the penalty, Nonpareil agreed to provide over $77,000 to replace five refrigerant recirculation pumps with leak free hermetically sealed pumps at its Teton Valley Ranch facility as part of a supplemental environmental project. The replacement of the pumps will improve the integrity of the system and reduce the risk of an anhydrous ammonia release into the environment. Ammonia is a colorless gas that can cause severe burns to skin, eyes, throat, and lungs, and with high enough exposure, death.

Facilities that store significant quantities of certain hazardous chemicals, including ammonia, are required to submit an inventory of each chemical to the State Emergency Response Commission, the Local Emergency Planning Committee, and the local fire department. Emergency responders rely on this information for their safety and to help protect nearby residents during an emergency, such as a fire or earthquake. Citizens can also access the information to find out what chemicals are being stored and used in their neighborhoods.

Nonpareil’s Teton Valley Ranch facility located at 475 E. 6^th South, Mountain Home, Idaho, produces a baked potato casserole that is frozen and packaged for retail sale, and uses an ammonia refrigeration system.

For information on EPA's Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, visit https://www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/epcra/epcraenfstatreq.html
For more about toxic effects of Anhydrous Ammonia (NIOSH GUIDE): http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0028.html
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