UPS to pay EPA $5.3m, fix hazardous waste violations at 1,160 locations

The consent arrangement with Atlanta-based mostly UPS resolves a variety of alleged violations, which include failure to make land disposal determinations and to conduct correct on-site administration of dangerous waste. The business has 3 a long time to get to compliance across 1,160 destinations and will shell out a civil penalty of $5.3 million.

UPS, whose familiar brown trucks are recognized worldwide, generates dangerous waste regulated below the federal Resource Conservation and Restoration Act when a offer made up of specified hazardous supplies is broken, as nicely as in the course of day-to-day operations this kind of as maintenance, EPA said.

“This settlement is yet another instance of EPA’s commitment to defending communities from the risks of harmful squander,” claimed Larry Starfield, EPA’s acting assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. The settlement requires UPS to deal with unlawful actions at all of its amenities and “implement procedures that prevent long run non-compliance,” Starfield mentioned.

UPS spokesperson Lauren Spangler explained the parcel-supply services has extended-standing procedures in spot to handle hazardous squander and is using extra methods to strengthen its methods.

“The safety of our employees and communities, and care for our environment are the maximum priorities at UPS,” she reported in an e-mail. “We will continue to function with companies and authorities around the globe to assure the basic safety of our community and the nicely-becoming of our workforce and the clients and communities we provide.”

EPA officers in Texas-primarily based Region 6 entered into a settlement arrangement with UPS final yr for services in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. Pursuing that settlement, EPA expanded its investigation into other UPS amenities across the region and identified comparable claims nationwide. UPS facilities generated, accumulated and available for transportation, treatment and/or disposal sure harmful waste streams, like ignitable, corrosive and acute harmful wastes, EPA said.

UPS has made compliance tactics at its Location 6 facilities and has begun similar techniques nationwide, EPA mentioned.

Less than the settlement, UPS agreed to comply with point out and federal RCRA regulations and laws, like a lot more precise hazardous waste determinations, right staff training and appropriate onsite management of harmful squander, EPA explained.