Seabrook N.H. Metal Finisher Improves Hazardous Waste Management under E.P.A. Settlement

BOSTON - Under a recent settlement, a Seabrook, N.H., metal finishing company will enhance its hazardous waste management practices, thereby improving health protections for the community. Aero-Dynamics, Incorporated will also pay a penalty of $118,000, settling E.P.A. claims that it violated hazardous waste regulations. The improved hazardous waste management practices will greatly reduce the risk of a release of hazardous waste to the environment.

Aero-Dynamics, Incorporated a metal finishing, plating and anodizing facility at 142 Batchelder St., faced eleven counts of alleged violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and state hazardous waste management rules, according to EPA's New England office. E.P.A. filed a complaint on Sept. 30, 2013, alleging the company failed to: conduct adequate hazardous waste determinations; minimize the possibility of release, fire, and/or explosion and risk to human health or the environment; to ensure presence and implementation of emergency preparedness and prevention measures; have an adequate hazardous waste training program; maintain an adequate contingency plan; close containers of hazardous waste; properly label containers of hazardous waste; mark containers with the beginning accumulation date; manage hazardous waste in accordance with the requirements for a satellite accumulation area; have an adequate hazardous waste inspection program; and treat hazardous waste in accordance with its state-issued permit.

Failing to comply with hazardous waste management laws can lead to delivers of hazardous waste that pose risks to human health and the environment. At its facility, Aero-Dynamics generates and accumulates corrosive, toxic, potentially reactive and ignitable hazardous wastes.

E.P.A. ordered Aero-Dynamics to certify that it had come into full compliance within 65 days of the issuance of the complaint. Aero-Dynamics brought the facility into compliance, taking several steps immediately after the inspection.

Before EPA's May 29, 2012 inspection and subsequent enforcement action, the N.H. Dept. of Environmental Services on Feb. 9, 2009, issued an agreement, which included a penalty that addressed similar hazardous waste violations detected during a 2007 state inspection of the Aero-Dynamics facility.

More information:

- How hazardous waste laws protect communities (http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/tsd/fac_reqs.htm)

- Report a Violation (http://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/report-environmental-violations)

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