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PCB Leaks at Fort Wainwright Prompt EPA Enforcement Action
Release Date: 4/12/1999
Contact Information: David Coxton
[email protected]
(206) 553-1716
99- 17 - - - - - - - - - - April 12, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For the second time in a month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an enforcement action against Fort Wainwright, the U.S. Army base on the outskirts of Fairbanks, Alaska. This time, the action is for leaks of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other violations of federal rules for the safe management of PCBs.
The action was announced today in Seattle by Dave Croxton, manager of EPA’s regional toxics program.
"Although the violations being alleged normally would allow for EPA to propose penalties amounting to $443,300, EPA in this instance cannot -- by law -- seek any monetary fine because Fort Wainwright is a federal facility,” Croxton said. “What EPA wants are assurances from Fort Wainwright that all violations have been corrected."
Failure to have taken corrective action would pose a potential threat to health and the environment, said Croxton, since eight of the 23 PCB violations involve leaks of PCBs. The remaining violations involve improper storage, marking, labelling and record-keeping, all violations of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.
EPA’s allegations about Fort Wainwright’s impropermanagement of PCBs stem from observations made by EPA during the same inspection in June 1997 in which EPA discovered that the Fort Wainwright coal-fired power plant was operating with inadequate emission controls and non-functioning monitors in violation of the federal Clean Air Act. EPA issued Fort Wainwright a notice for those violations early last month. Officials from Fort Wainwright and EPA are scheduled to meet April 28 to discuss the case.
The notice of the PCB violations gives Fort Wainwright 15 days to provide EPA with written documentation demonstrating that the necessary corrective actions have already been taken, or to describe the steps being taken to come promptly into full compliance with the PCB
rules.
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