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Santa Rosa company pays $52,990 for toxic chemical reporting violations

Release Date: 08/04/2008
Contact Information: Wendy Chavez, 415/947-4248, chavez.wendy@epa.gov

(San Francisco, Calif. -- 08/04/08) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached a $52,990 settlement with a Santa Rosa, Calif. lead fabricating company for failing to submit toxic chemical reports, a violation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

Santa Rosa Lead Products, Inc., located at 33 S. University St., failed to submit timely, complete, and correct reports to the EPA and the state detailing the amounts of lead processed at its facility from 2003 through 2006. EPA inspectors discovered the four violations during a routine inspection in August 2007.

“This company has a responsibility to provide prompt and accurate information about the chemicals it is storing,” said Enrique Manzanilla, Communities and Ecosystems Division director for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “Without this information, state and local emergency responders cannot be adequately prepared to protect communities in the event of a chemical release.”

Federal emergency planning and right-to-know laws require facilities processing, manufacturing, or otherwise using more than 100 pounds of lead to report releases of this highly toxic chemical on an annual basis to the EPA and the state. Although Santa Rosa Lead Products processed over 3 million pounds of lead for 2003 and 2004, almost 3 million pounds in 2005, and over 2 million pounds in 2006, it failed to submit reports to the agency for any of those years.

Exposure to lead and lead compounds may result in high blood pressure, digestive problems, muscle and joint pain, nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, increased chance of illness during pregnancy, and harm to a fetus, including brain damage or death. Exposure to even low levels of lead can severely harm children under the age of six.

Each year the EPA compiles the information submitted to it from the previous year regarding toxic chemical releases, and produces a national Toxics Release Inventory database for public availability. The TRI database estimates the amounts of each toxic chemical released to the environment, treated or recycled on-site, or transferred off-site for waste management, and also provides a trend analysis of toxic chemical releases.

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