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U.S. EPA settles with Las Vegas mining company for $18,060 for reporting violations

Release Date: 07/18/2007
Contact Information: Margot Perez-Sullivan, 415/947-4149, perezsullivan.margot@epa.gov

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today settled with a Las Vegas mining and asphalt manufacturer for $18,060 after it failed to submit toxic chemical reports, a violation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

Las Vegas Paving’s Lone Mountain facility, located approximately one mile west of I-215 and Lone Mountain Road, failed to submit timely, complete, and correct reports detailing the amount of benzo(g,h,i)perylene and polycyclic aromatic compounds released at its facility in 2003 and 2004.

“Facilities that use toxic chemicals must follow the EPA’s reporting rules so that area residents and emergency response personnel are informed of possible chemical hazards in the community,” said Nate Lau, the associate director of the Communities and Ecosystems Division for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “This is a good example of how the EPA and industry can work together. Las Vegas Paving corrected the violations and complied with federal law -- making the information available for public use.”

The company corrected the reporting violations within 80 days of the EPA’s June 2006 inspection.

Federal community right-to-know laws require facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use more than 10 pounds of benzo(g,h,i)perylene or 100 pounds of polycyclic aromatic
compounds to report releases of these chemical on an annual basis to the EPA and the state. Las Vegas Paving exceeded the thresholds in 2003 and 2004, and allegedly failed to submit release reports to the EPA.

Benzo(g,h,i)perylene and polycyclic aromatic compounds are suspected carcinogens that are bioaccumulative, do not break down easily in the environment, and can be transported long distances in the atmosphere. Long term exposure to these persistent bioaccumulative toxic chemicals may cause reproductive and developmental disorders.

The reporting of data to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is required under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, passed in 1986. The law requires companies using any of 650 listed toxic chemicals over certain thresholds to report their annual chemical releases to the EPA. The information is then compiled into a national TRI database that is accessible to local emergency planning personnel and the general public.

The program has been credited with arming communities with valuable knowledge and encouraging facilities to reduce their releases of toxic chemicals into the environment through source reduction, or pollution prevention measures

For more information on the TRI program, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/tri The U.S. EPA’s environmental databases, including the TRI data, can be accessed at: https://www.epa.gov/enviro