Pennsylvania Company Pays $200,000 Penalty For Violations

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced that the owners of R3 Technologies Inc. Falls Township, PA, have agreed to pay a $200,000 civil penalty to settle operational violations. The company is a residual waste processing facility.

 “These are serious violations that the department has have been working to address for years,” said Joseph Feola, the state DEP’s southeast regional director. “The company has been put on notice that future violations will result in further enforcement and they could lose their operating permits.”

R3 Technologies is a Pennsylvania corporation, owned by Yonkers Contracting Co. of New York and Mixed Design Methods Inc. of Pennsylvania.

Since 1994, under DEP permits to operate a residual waste facility, R3 has accepted contaminated soil for thermal processing. The company uses a two-step process to remove pollutants. First, the soil is heated at a specific high temperature to extract contaminants as evaporated gases. The gases then are burned in a secondary combustion chamber at a temperature sufficient to destroy the contaminants.

The processed soil, based on how its contaminant levels meet the allowable permit levels, can be sold as clean fill; returned to the sites from where it originally was excavated; or sent to a site where contaminated soil had been excavated and the existing soil background levels of contamination are greater than the contaminant levels of the processed soil. In addition, the company provided certification that the contaminated soil had been properly treated.

But starting in 1998, DEP inspectors found R3 operating its equipment at temperatures lower than required to remove contaminants, which led to incomplete treatment of the contaminated soil and resulted in fugitive emissions from the plant. By lowering the processing temperatures, R3 could process more soil while lowering its natural gas and electricity costs. The modification of this process meant contaminated soil was not being properly processed and the resulting processed soil was being returned to customers or sent to others without having met the appropriate permitting parameters—or being fraudulently sold to customers who thought they were receiving clean fill.

DEP inspectors also found several instances of contaminated soil being stored improperly, inadequate erosion and sedimentation controls, and acceptance of soil contaminated with lead at levels higher than allowed by the acceptance parameters in their permit.

R3’s management team has been replaced since these violations were cited.

Under a Consent Order and Agreement (COA) with DEP, signed earlier this month, R3, in addition to other conditions, will provide the department a copy of its new Environmental Management System plan to identify and address environmental compliance requirements. Once the plan is approved by DEP, R3 will have 30 days to implement the system. If the company fails to meet deadlines specified in the COA, its permits may be revoked.

For a 180-day term of the COA, R3 must demonstrate its ability and intention to comply with the Solid Waste Management Act, the Air Pollution Control Act and the Sept. 3 COA. Any violations during the 180-day period could result in permit revocation and assessment of stipulated penalties.

On May 16, 2002, the company pleaded no contest to charges filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General, including five counts of unlawful disposal, processing and storage of residual waste, two counts of unlawful conduct under the Air Pollution Control Act, and one count of unlawful conduct under the Solid Waste Management Act.