The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has been fined $118,100 by the Environmental Protection Agency for improperly storing hazardous waste in Juneau.
According to a consent decree dated Sept. 26, the DOT facility at 6860 Glacier Highway kept 4,420 pounds of “corrosive liquids, solvents and petroleum products” outside and without a permit.
Under federal law, the limit for storing those types of hazardous waste is 2,200 pounds. Anything more than that requires a permit.
“It was one of our routine inspections, and the inspector was just doing his job” when he found the storage area, said EPA case manager Kristin McNeill in Seattle.
According to the consent decree, the inspector found the materials in May 2012, and despite warnings from the EPA, more than 3,500 pounds remained at the location until December 2013.
“The issue with that was mainly that it was being stored outside and not in a protected environment,” McNeill said. “It’s not something that we routinely see, the way they were storing the waste. It was basically just exposed to the environment, kind of in an open area of the property.”
While no hazardous waste spilled into the environment, proper storage is an important matter because it prevents spills, said Mark MacIntyre, a spokesman for the EPA in Seattle.
“If there’s more than is allowed … than sometime control can be a problem, and when you don’t control hazardous waste, it can get to be a problem,” he said.
Jeremy Woodrow, a spokesman for the DOT in Juneau, said the agency wasn’t aware there was a problem.
“We didn’t know we were in violation until the inspector came by,” he said. “We took corrective action immediately, but regardless, we got a fine from the EPA.”
“If you manage your waste properly, you won’t have to pay penalties,” MacIntyre said.
According to a statement from the EPA, the Alaska Department of Transportation has paid $501,000 in fines since 2013, a figure that includes a 2014 hazardous waste case and two drinking-water-related cases in 2013.
