Arizona DEQ, Veolia reach settlement

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has announced that Veolia ES Technical Solutions LLC has agreed to pay $360,000 in civil penalties under a consent judgment for illegally disposing hazardous waste to a sand and gravel pit in 2009. According to a spokesman for the ADEQ, the sand and gravel pit was designed to accept construction and demolition (C&D) debris but not hazardous material.

In response to a complaint in April 2009, ADEQ says its compliance officers inspected a sand and gravel pit in which they observed crushed lamps, intact fluorescent lamps, intact metal halide lamps, intact compact fluorescent lamps and other lamp-related debris in a portion of the sand and gravel pit that was less than 600 feet from the Salt River in Arizona.

The investigation revealed the lamps and broken glass had been generated by Veolia, ADEQ says. Samples of the broken glass taken from the pit were found to be above regulatory thresholds for mercury. An inspection of Veolia’s facility in May 2009 resulted in ADEQ issuing a Notice of Violation (NOV) to the company for improper sampling equipment and techniques, inadequate response to high mercury samples, open containers, containers in poor condition, hazardous waste on the ground and disposal of hazardous waste without a permit. Veolia staff also had failed to examine lab reports to verify if hazardous waste was being sent to the landfill, ADEQ says. 

Since the activities of 2009, the ADEQ notes that Veolia has improved the processes at their facility and had been in compliance with hazardous waste storage permit and related hazardous waste generator requirements during recent inspections.

“As a result of our agency’s investigation and holding the company accountable for its violations, Veolia has improved its operations and is now in compliance with all conditions of its permit, thus ensuring public health and the environment are protected,” ADEQ Director Henry Darwin says. The settlement is subject to court approval.