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Sun Valley Ski Resort Pays $80,000 Fine for Hazardous Chemicals Violations

Release Date: 10/13/2000
Contact Information: Suzanne Powers
powers.suzanne@epamail.epa.gov
360-753-9475

October 4, 2000 - - - - - - - - - 00-56

The Regional office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the Sinclair Oil Corporation, owner of the Sun Valley Idaho Ski Resort, has agreed to pay an $80,000 fine for failure to report over 4,000 pounds of ammonia, 37,000 pounds of gasoline and 400,000 pounds of diesel fuel stored at the resort.

These failures to report hazardous substances are violations of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) The law is intended to protect communities from catastrophic releases of dangerous chemicals by requiring facilities that use or store large amounts of hazardous chemicals to report the quantities of “hazardous chemicals and extremely hazardous substances” to the State Emergency Response Commission, the local Emergency Planning Committee and the local fire department.

“The people in Sun Valley have a right to know if a business is storing or using potentially dangerous substances,” said Mike Gearheard, Director of EPA’s regional Environmental Cleanup Office in Seattle. “And the state and local emergency responders must know what’s there for their safety and that of the surrounding neighborhood.

“Had there been an emergency, the fire department wouldn’t have known about the dangerous chemicals they could have faced.”

Through a joint enforcement initiative effort carried out in 1999, EPA and the State of Idaho’s Bureau of Hazardous Materials identified the company as being out of compliance with EPCRA. The company failed to respond to compliance letters and also failed to report the presence of hazardous chemicals during calendar years 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 and 1998.

The settlement was the result of negotiations that took place after the company was notified of the violations and was given the opportunity to reach settlement prior to the filing of a formal complaint.