New penalties have been imposed on Gaithersburg Recycling Center, LLC for improper use of a wood grinding unit.
In addition, the company has reached a settlement with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration about violations related to worker safety.
Gaithersburg Recycling Center has been operating a wood mulching and bagging facility since September, 2001 at the former Compton Trucking Company property, south of Berkeley Springs.
Recently the West Virginia Division of Air Quality ordered Gaithersburg Recycling to pay a $2,900 penalty and correct deficiencies.
A Department of Environmental Protection inspector recently found the company was not using water sprays to keep down dust when wood was ground in a tub grinder.
Use of water sprays was one of the requirements of a consent order that company and state environmental officials agreed to last fall.
The consent order resulted from an earlier violation in which Gaithersburg Recycling was cited for emitting at least five times the legal limit of wood dust and operating a grinder without a permit last May.
As part of the settlement, the company was fined $7500 and was allowed to operate the wood grinder while it applied for a permit.
So far, the company has not secured a permit from the Division of Air Quality. The application was put on hold on April 15 until the firm clears up the new violations, said Chris Sergent, state air quality engineer.
Air Quality director John Benedict said the new $2,900 penalty is due to penalties that were stipulated in the consent order last fall.
"The company petitioned state officials to continue to operate while their air permit was being processed," Benedict said. "If the written procedures had been followed, Gaithersburg Recycling would be in compliance today."
The stipulated penalty was $100 per violation per day. More fines can be imposed if the company continues to operate the grinder without water sprays, Benedict said.
Gaithersburg Recycling is supposed to pay the $2,900 within 30 days and to respond within 15 days about how the company will correct the problem.
Earlier this month, Lynn Shaulis of Gaithersburg Recycling Center also signed a settlement agreement with the Charleston office of the U. S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).
Under the terms of the agreement, Gaithersburg Recycling will pay penalties of $7,200 for violations found during a February inspection. The fines are to be paid in monthly installments over the next year.
OSHA sent an investigator after receiving letters this winter from former employees of the company.
In March, OSHA cited Gaithersburg Recycling for more than 20 violations, most of them considered "serious." The complaints were related to the health and safety of workers in the mulching facility.
Violations included water in the building due to leaks, hydraulic fluid leaking from the wood grinding unit outside, litter and debris throughout the property, and problems with fire extinguishers.
Workers were not provided with protective gear, equipment was not properly marked, an end loader had faulty brakes and numerous other complaints related to equipment, according to the OSHA report.
The OSHA inspector also claimed work was being done and equipment operated by untrained personnel, a defective ladder was being used, and required records were not being kept.
Originally, a penalty of more than $13,000 was proposed and the violations were to be corrected by late March.
Under terms of the settlement agreement, the penalty was reduced to $7,200 and a time schedule between now and June 1 was set up for repair and correction of various items.
Gaithersburg Recycling Center is the parent company of Morgan County Potting Soil Manufacturers, LLC, which has been seeking to open a factory in the county-owned U. S. 522 Industrial Park to recycle construction debris.
In February, the State Department of Environmental Protection denied the company's applications for the necessary air quality and solid waste permits.
Morgan County Potting Soil has appealed the turndown of the solid waste permit. A hearing is scheduled in Charleston on May 8, said Mike Dorsey, assistant director of the Division of Water & Waste Management.
The deadline has passed for appealing the rejection of the air quality permit and no appeal was filed. Morgan (West Virginia) Messenger