Cal EPA and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has hit Chemical Waste Management with yet another fine, this time for $400,000 and an order to purchase $600,000 worth of new equipment to properly test the hazardous substances they’re processing.
Have they taken down their website? I can’t find it. If I were running the place, I’d be hiding my head in shame.
Chemical Waste manages a massive hazardous substances landfill three-and-a half miles from Kettleman City and over the years of operation has been fined innumerable times, most recently in December 2010 for $300,000. Fines add up to more than $2m already and now this.
The order has come down to purchase a new lab and learn how to use it. Since 2005, the equipment had not been calibrated properly so readings of the toxicity of the materials they handled were what Chem Waste said they were. “Testing mistakes” they call it.”
Routine inspectors appeared not to notice the readings were out of whack for at least five years. But pressure from Greenaction and a local group brought to bear on the EPA finally required a response.
Since May 2010 Chem Waste has been required to use an outside lab for at least two years, so that officials and concerned people who live in nearby Kettleman City will have an idea of what’s really going on there.
“The investigation found records indicating the facility disposed of waste that did not fully meet standards for treatment prior to disposal. In addition, the facility disposed of hazardous waste leachate from the landfill without assuring the leachate met treatment standards.”
Leachate is the liquid produced in a landfill from the decomposition of waste within the landfill. Really, really icky, nasty stuff, to use a scientific term, after its run through layers of hazardous material.
I quote from the report: “There is no evidence to suggest that the landfill’s violations posed any danger to nearby communities or workers at the facility.”
That just took my breath away. There have been a cluster of birth defects in babies born in nearby Kettleman City, 11 in fact over a recent 3-year period. A recent report states that another baby has just been born to heighten the apprehension that accompanies each new pregnancy.
Remember that Chem Waste has also applied for a permit to almost double the size of the facility. How would you vote on that, I ask you? You trust them?
The vote is coming up. Stay tuned.