NORWAY – Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection has fined a local metal-parts manufacturer for violating hazardous waste rules, after inspectors found a petroleum spill and contaminated oil that hadn’t been properly disposed of at the company’s Norway facility.
Since the Hazardous Waste Enforcement Unit made the citation last year, Grover Gundrilling Inc. has fixed the problems and is in compliance with state policy regarding hazardous waste, said Michael Hudson, the hazardous waste enforcement supervisor, on Friday.
“I think they have learned from the experience, and they were very cooperative working with us to resolve the violations,” Hudson said. Grover Gundrilling signed a DEP consent agreement on Sept. 22.
On Aug. 12, 2004, two inspectors visiting the company found 11 drums containing 605 gallons of oil contaminated by chromium and a drum filled with flammable liquid that had been stored longer than the state’s allowance of 90 days, according to a state report. The drums were also not labeled properly.
The report states that the company lapsed in other ways to ensure proper management of hazardous waste, for instance by not posting warning signs on waste containers and not installing an alarm system to warn of spills.
The inspectors also found a nonhazardous spill of petroleum that had seeped into the soil, according to the report.
Garth Grover, president of the company, said Friday, “We were not knowingly violating the state’s hazardous waste rules. We didn’t understand the rules completely, and the state showed us where we were not compliant.” Grover Gundrilling is a precision manufacturer of metal parts, Grover said.
The state posts hazardous waste regulations on its Web site, has printed a rule handbook, and also conducts periodic seminars for generators of hazardous waste material, Hudson said.
Hudson said Grover Gundrilling has sent the department documentation with photographs that has convinced officials the company is no longer in violation of state law. A follow-up visit is not planned, he said.
State inspectors visit about 100 facilities a year – from dry cleaners to airplane parts manufacturers – and find roughly 10 percent in violation of hazardous waste laws, Hudson said. He added that the penalty imposed on Grover Gundrilling, $6,750, is on the low end of penalty fees.
It costs between $150 to $300 a drum to dispose of hazardous waste oils, Hudson said.
Hudson said the department imposed the fine based on the number of violations documented at the Norway site and for the amount of hazardous waste found there.
The drums were filled with oil that had become contaminated by touching metal that contained chromium, Hudson said. Chromium is one of eight heavy metals regulated by the state and can be toxic if released into groundwater, Hudson said.
There was no public health threat posed by the violations, he said. This was the first time the hazardous waste unit visited the 22-year-old company, Hudson said, because it does not generate much hazardous waste.
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