Wisconsin facility fined for breaching environmental legislation

Alleged violations of environmental legislation have seen a settlement agreed between a Wisconsin hazardous waste treatment and storage firm and the US Environmental Protection Agency Region Five.

Based in Eau Claire, WRR Environmental Services allegedly breached federal rules on hazardous waste by failing to comply with emergency preparedness and prevention requirements, manage storage tanks and secondary containment systems and comply with monitoring, inspection and recording guidelines.

The company has agreed to pay the EPA a penalty of $20,000 (£12,000) and $69,771 towards supplemental environmental projects due to having subverted Resource Conservation and Recovery Act rules.

It will clean up a stream adjacent to its facility in the near future and conduct two household hazardous waste collections days in November 2009 and 2010.

This news comes after California's Performance Coatings also reached a settlement with the EPA for failing to provide the environmental organisation with complete and accurate information about its toxic chemical usage.

Written by Joseph Hutton