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EPA Fines Phoenix Lamp Recycler More Than $70,000 for PCB Violations

Release Date: 06/05/2013
Contact Information: Rusty Harris-Bishop, 415-972-3140, [email protected]

(06/05/13) SAN FRANCISCO: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it has settled with Lighting Resources, LLC for $71,500 for violations relating to its handling of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) at its Phoenix, Ariz. recycling facility.

“Exposure to PCBs is a concern whenever facilities are handling materials containing these toxic chemicals,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Our goal is to safeguard worker health and nearby communities by ensuring that Lighting Resources takes the necessary steps to improve the safety of their recycling and disposal practices.”

The facility is permitted under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to manage and store PCB wastes. Separate permits allow the facility to recycle fluorescent lamps and ballasts, batteries, electronic wastes, and mercury devices. The facility also manages non-PCB ballasts, phosphorous powders, aerosol cans, and mercury containing wastes. The company operates facilities in five states and is one of the nation’s largest ballast processors.

EPA inspections in 2008 and 2012 found that the Phoenix facility had not effectively decontaminated its PCB handling area, documented the transport and disposal of PCB-contaminated materials, or properly labeled PCB and hazardous waste containers.

PCBs are man-made organic chemicals used in paints, industrial equipment, plastics, and cooling oil for electrical transformers. More than 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were manufactured in the United States before the EPA banned the production of this chemical class in 1978, and many PCB-containing materials are still in use today.

When released into the environment, PCBs remain for decades. Tests have shown that PCBs cause cancer in animals and are suspected carcinogens in humans. Acute PCB exposure can also adversely affect the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems as well as liver function. Concerns about human health and the extensive presence and lengthy persistence of PCBs in the environment led Congress to enact TSCA in 1976.

For more information on PCB regulation and enforcement, as well as TSCA enforcement in general, please visit the EPA’s website at:

www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/pcb/
www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/tsca/index.html