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Alaska Borough to Build New Waste Management Facility

Release Date: 6/8/1998
Contact Information: Sylvia Burges
[email protected]
(206) 553-1254


June 8, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - 98-33
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Alaska's North Slope Borough has agreed to build and operate a $3 to $4 million hazardous waste management facility and pay a $24,232 cash penalty to settle a complaint filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

    The settlement was announced today by Chuck Clarke, EPA regional administrator in Seattle.

    "This agreement is good for the environment and good for the Borough," said Clarke. "The new facility will handle hazardous wastes -- generated both in Barrow and in outlying villages --that might otherwise be abandoned or mismanaged."

    The complaint stemmed from the results of EPA inspections at the North Slope Borough's solid waste landfill at Barrow in August, 1996 and August, 1997, when a number of alleged hazardous waste storage violations were observed.

    The Borough has agreed to convert-an abandoned gas field exploration well into a permitted class 1 hazardous waste injection well. If the well is infeasible, the Borough will build an enclosed hazardous waste storage facility where the wastes can be stored safely, and will ship wastes that cannot be recycled offsite for appropriate disposal.

    By agreeing to the terms of the settlement, the North Slope Borough neither confirms nor denies the validity of the allegations set forth in the complaint.
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