Milwaukee-area company fined $1.6M for hazardous waste violations

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state of Wisconsin have reached a settlement with Container Life Cycle Management LLC (CLCM), based in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to address Clean Air Act (CAA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) violations at the company’s container reconditioning facilities in the Milwaukee area.

The company is required to pay a $1.6 million civil penalty to be split evenly between the United States and Wisconsin.

In a complaint filed with the proposed settlement, the U.S. alleges violations of the CAA, most notably at CLCM’s St. Francis, Wisconsin, facility, for failure to control emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as required by the EPA-approved Wisconsin implementation plan.

The complaint also alleges RCRA violations related to the storage and handling of hazardous waste at the company’s facilities in St. Francis and Oak Creek, and its then-operating facility in Milwaukee.

“Today’s settlement will help us protect nearby residents and improve the region’s air quality,” says Larry Starfield, EPA’s Acting Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, in a release announcing the settlement. “This is a good example of EPA working cooperatively with our state partners to ensure environmental compliance and secure emissions reductions.”

“Today’s settlement benefits public health and the environment by ensuring [the] proper handling of hazardous wastes at Container Life Cycle Management’s container reconditioning facilities and will significantly limit harmful emissions of volatile organic compounds,” says Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

As part of the settlement, CLCM has installed and must continuously operate a regenerative thermal oxidizer to control air emissions of VOCs at the St. Francis facility. The company also will construct additional emissions capture systems within the facility and conduct performance testing.

At the Oak Creek facility, the company must install a new digital data recorder to record the temperature of the drum reclamation furnace afterburner. This device must maintain the afterburner temperature at or above 1,650 degrees and conduct performance testing.

Additionally, the company is required to implement a container management plan, or CMP, for a two-year period. The CMP provides for the storage of heavy and non-empty containers in RCRA-compliant hazardous waste storage areas.