The Respondent owns or operates a chemical distribution facility where the respondent has used or stored more than 15,000 pounds of formaldehyde. 40 C.F.R. § 68.25(a)(2)(i) requires the owner or operator of a stationary source to analyze and report in a Risk Management Plan (“RMP”) the worse-case release scenario that is estimated to create the greatest distance in any direction to an endpoint resulting from an accidental release of a regulated toxic substance from a covered process under worst-case conditions.
NOTE: This case involved ONLY one (1) issue. The issue was the RMP listed a WCS that was no longer applicable to the facility and did not reflect the actual WCS at the time of the inspection. This chemical distribution business was also in the news with its $800K settlement at four other distribution facilities and this may have impacted the $125K amount for this single error.
ALLEGED VIOLATIONS
COUNT 1 -Failure to identify the worse-case release scenario properly
From at least September 2006 until October 2010, Respondent’s RMP included a worst-case release scenario based upon a container of cyclohexylamine with an off-site consequence of 1.5 miles.
At no time after September 2006 did Respondent store a container of cyclohexylamine with an off-site consequence of more than 0.6 miles.
From at least September 2006, the facility has stored at least one container of formaldehyde weighing from 480 to 507 pounds. The off-site consequence based on this size of the container is 1.0 mile.
Respondent failed to base the worst-case scenario on the largest container of formaldehyde with an off-site consequence of 1.0 mile in the RMP.
Therefore, EPA alleges that Respondent failed to correctly identify the worst-case release scenario from September 2006 until October 2010, in violation of 40 CFR § 68.25.
CIVIL PENALTY
Based on the facts alleged herein and upon all the factors that the EPA considers pursuant to Section 113(e) of the CAA, 42 U.S.C. § 7413(e), and the Combined Enforcement Policy for CAA Section 112(r) Risk Management Program (“CEP”), including the size of Respondent’s business, the economic impact of the penalty on Respondent’s business, Respondent’s full compliance history and good faith efforts to comply, the duration of the violation, payment by Respondent of penalties previously assessed for the same violation, the economic benefit of noncompliance, the seriousness of the violation, and such other factors as justice may require, EPA proposes that Respondent be assessed. Respondent agrees to pay ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS ($122,550) in settlement of the civil penalty claims for the violations alleged herein. The proposed penalty was calculated in accordance with the CAA and the CEP.
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