Albaugh fined for hazardous waste, Risk Management Program violations

Albaugh, Inc., of Ankeny, Iowa, has agreed to pay a $64,804 civil penalty to the United States for a series of hazardous waste and chemical Risk Management Program violations at its manufacturing facility in St. Joseph, Mo.

According to an administrative consent agreement filed by EPA Region 7 in Kansas City, Kan., the Agency inspected Albaugh’s St. Joseph facility in April 2010 to determine its compliance with the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which regulates hazardous waste. In August 2009, EPA inspected the facility to determine its compliance with the chemical Risk Management Program regulations under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA).

Albaugh’s St. Joseph facility formulates and packages a range of crop protection products for the agricultural industry, including fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides and plant growth regulators.

EPA’s 2010 hazardous waste inspection noted several RCRA violations at the facility, including its failure to conduct a hazardous waste determination on a 265-gallon tote that had been on-site for almost two years. The inspection also found that Albaugh failed to comply with hazardous waste generator requirements by failing to label, close and properly store hazardous waste. Albaugh’s facility also had deficient safety practices, including an inadequate contingency plan.

The 2009 inspection found that Albaugh failed to implement a risk management program that included all of the regulatory requirements. Albaugh failed to include key prevention components of their risk management program, including failure to analyze their processes to determine the hazards, failure to include updated information regarding process equipment, and failure to implement procedures that reflected current operations.

Since those inspections, Albaugh has corrected the RCRA violations, and has updated its Risk Management Plan.

Both RCRA and the Risk Management Program regulations are intended to prevent human and environmental exposure to harmful waste and chemicals. Failure to properly implement these regulations can leave the facility and the public at risk for harmful exposures.