Indiana’s Attorney General Greg Zoeller has filed a lawsuit against VIM Recycling, an Elkhart, Ind., wood recycling firm that the state notes has a history of environmental violations, worker-safety violations and public complaints. The suit asks the court to require the company to cease its open dumping of wood waste and to remove waste materials and debris.
The AG filed suit after an inspection the middle of December found multiple violations at the company’s wood-recycling operation in Elkhart.
The complaint alleges VIM Recycling has continued to haul in and deposit "B-grade" solid waste – scraps and pieces of treated wood from mobile-home manufacturing waste – onto the site in violation of the state’s laws against open dumping, polluting or creating fire hazards.
The suit alleges VIM Recycling engaged in a pattern of noncompliance with directives of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Some of the problems at the site are the following:
•Residents in the vicinity long have complained about the stench, smoke and wood dust emanating from the VIM facility.
•An explosion and fire at VIM Recycling killed one worker and injured another in June 2007 fueled concerns about unsafe working conditions that were magnified when a second worker was killed in May 2009 in a separate accident.
•In 2007, before the fire, VIM was required by an agreed order with IDEM to remove all the “C-grade” waste – weathered, rotting wood scraps – from the site. After the fire, the company missed the deadline for removal, and in October 2008 IDEM filed suit to enforce the agreed order. A citizens’ group of nearby residents then intervened to join that case.
•In June, the EPA cited VIM Recycling for violations of the Clean Air Act when smoke – from the piles of wood still smoldering from the fire two years earlier – continued to pollute the neighborhood air. Under an agreement with EPA the company now is required by year’s end to haul away the large pieces of combustible “C-grade” waste.
•The Indiana State Fire Marshal has filed suit against VIM Recycling due to fire-safety violations involving the height and stability of wood piles and space between them that constituted a fire hazard.
•VIM illegally and without the necessary permits opened a second recycling site, in Warsaw, Ind., for grinding chemically-treated B-grade wood waste. IDEM sought and obtained a preliminary injunction when it was discovered.
An EPA agreement required VIM to remove larger pieces of C-grade wood waste after smaller pieces had been screened out. Although the EPA-required cleanup of the C-grade waste is nearing completion, a large volume of smaller C-grade pieces remain on the site. Additionally, VIM Recycling has continued to deliver B-grade wood waste from elsewhere and deposit it on the site, despite warnings from IDEM and EPA to company owner Kenneth Will that further dumping is prohibited.
Under state environmental laws, the Court could impose civil penalties against VIM Recycling of up to $25,000 per day per violation.