During 2010 and 2011, WasteXpress transported 4,125 gallons of a hazardous chemical, called Kester flux, from the SolarWorld factory in Hillsboro to Apollo Chemical in Portland without the required documentation intended to ensure proper management, tracking and disposal of the waste.
Kester flux is 60-100 percent isopropyl alcohol and is highly flammable.
In 2015, an inspector from the Washington Department of Ecology discovered approximately 30 drums of the SolarWorld Kester flux at a property in Yacolt, WA, after an anonymous caller reported that chemicals were being dumped and burned on the property.
The Department of Ecology notified the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the US Environmental Protection Agency. The agencies worked with Apollo Chemical to remove the drums from the illegal dump site.
DEQ fined SolarWorld in July 2017 for its role in this incident.
Between 2014 and 2017, WasteXpress also picked up and transported without required documentation manufacturing waste containing chromium in toxic concentrations from Benchmade Knife Company.
DEQ regulates the accumulation, storage, handling, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste. DEQ issued this penalty because properly managing hazardous waste is crucial to protecting public health and the environment.
View the full enforcement letter at: https://www.oregon.gov/deq/nr/012618irm.pdf
Contact: Laura Gleim, Public Affairs Specialist, Portland, 503-229-6488, gleim.laura@deq.state.or.us
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality published this content on 29 January 2018 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 29 January 2018 20:48:20 UTC.
Original documenthttp://www.oregon.gov/newsroom/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?newsid=2546
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