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Warehouse Company in St. Joseph, Mo., Ordered to Comply with Federal Law on Storage, Management of Hazardous Waste

Release Date: 04/28/2010
Contact Information: Chris Whitley, 913-551-7394, [email protected]

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., April 28, 2010) - EPA Region 7 has issued a legal order against a St. Joseph, Mo., warehouse company, directing the firm to conduct assessments of the storage, handling and management of hazardous wastes at four of its facilities in St. Joseph.

The consent agreement and final order, filed today in Kansas City, Kan., directs Brown Transfer and Storage Company to address issues at warehouses located at 1711 Penn Street, 920 South 6th Street, 1302 North 6th Street, and 2345 South 6th Street, all in St. Joseph.

Inspections in January 2008 found the company was storing a combined total of more than 5,000 pounds of various hazardous wastes at those facilities, all without proper permits as required by the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Missouri state laws.

The stored materials included Xylene, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, paint wastes, petroleum distillates, flammable liquids, sodium hydroxide, waste aerosols and broken fluorescent bulbs, among others. These hazardous wastes were determined to be ignitable, corrosive, reactive and/or toxic, and potentially harmful to human health and the environment. Brown Transfer and Storage Company properly disposed of the wastes in March 2008.

In addition to storing the materials without proper permits, the legal filing alleges that Brown Transfer and Storage Company failed to conduct hazardous waste analysis for the stored materials for at least a year, that it failed to perform weekly inspections of the materials, and that it failed to properly train employees on the management of hazardous wastes. The company also failed to make necessary precautionary arrangements with local hospitals and emergency responders in regard to each facility, and did not have contingency plans and emergency procedures in place for each facility, the order says.

Brown Transfer and Storage Company must now act within 14 days to select a contractor, subject to EPA approval, to develop a plan to conduct site characterizations of areas in which wastes were stored and where releases of solid and hazardous wastes have occurred. Related work plans must include schedules for the ultimate cleanup of any contaminated areas.

EPA may require the company to perform investigatory sampling of air, soil, surface water and groundwater, and other activities that may be determined necessary for the protection of human health and the environment.