OXFORD — Oxford Aviation has settled a case with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the company’s violation of waste disposal requirements.

According to a release from the EPA, the Oxford airplane refurbisher has changed its procedures to the department’s satisfaction and agreed to pay a $5,000 fine.

Oxford Aviation president and founder Jim Horowitz said his company mistakenly ran afoul of Maine Department of Environmental Protection rules while working to accommodate federal regulations.

Horowitz said the issue stemmed from Oxford Aviation’s use of chrome to treat aluminum. He said when a federal regulation barred the use of hexavalent chrome, the company switched to trivalent chrome, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe.

“We believed we were doing a very good thing, and we made that switch voluntarily,” Horowitz said Thursday.

During a September 2009 EPA inspection, however, Horowitz was told that trivalent chrome violates Maine environmental law, although some industries, like the leather and wood industries, are exempt. Airplane refurbishing and refinishing is not.

According to the EPA, Oxford Aviation failed to “adequately determine the contents of hazardous waste containers.” In addition, they failed “to perform various requirements, including conducting a hazardous waste determination of its wastes from its chemical conversion coating operation; adequately training employees with hazardous waste management responsibilities; conducting and documenting daily inspections of hazardous waste containers; and properly labeling and managing containers of hazardous waste.”

“I think it was a pretty straightforward misunderstanding on our part,” Horowitz said. He called the $5,000 fine fair and praised the EPA’s willingness to see Oxford Aviation’s effort to comply with laws.

Horowitz said his company has found a new means of treating aluminum that doesn’t use chromium at all, bypassing the need to deal with the hazardous material. He said methyline chloride, a chemical solvent, will also no longer be used thanks to “new hybrid methods.”

He said he doesn’t contest the state’s ruling that certain industries can use trivalent chrome. “I trust the EPA and I trust the DEP to make those decisions.”

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