EPA says 25 businesses in state told to clean up
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007
The Environmental Protection Agency targeted new construction and animal-breeding operations in Arkansas over the past year to keep pollution from those sites out of the state’s waterways, a director with the federal agency said this week.
To keep Arkansas’ waterways “clean and pristine,” the EPA required 25 businesses — mostly developers — to create stormwater plans to prevent rainwater from washing sediment and other pollutants from construction sites into lakes and rivers.
Throughout the state in 2007, EPA reduced air, water, and hazardous waste pollution by more than 2 million pounds, and levied more than $ 250, 000 in penalties and environmental improvements.
The enforcement numbers were released Thursday by the EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance in Dallas, as part of its annual report for the fiscal year which ended Sept. 30.
“In terms of industrial sources, you don’t have a lot of companies that have major... levels of pollution [being emitted ] into the air,” said John Blevins, director of compliance assurance and enforcement for EPA’s Region 6, which comprises Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
“What you do have in Arkansas is a lot of activity that impacts the waters of either the U. S. or the state,” Blevins said Thursday.
Federal regulators were namely concerned about sediment from new construction sites and animal waste products getting into waterways.
“Those are areas where we worked with the state to do inspections to see if there were any violations,” Blevins said.
Animal waste contains nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, which “suck up the oxygen” fish need, Blevins said.
Too much plant growth in a water body could be unhealthy for animals living in or using the lake, Blevins said.
The EPA inspects sites in Arkansas at its discretion, though it doesn’t have any inspectors stationed in the state. It partners with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, which has its own inspectors and can also refer cases to the federal agency.
The report issued Thursday said the agency settled 58 cases in 2007 where companies were out-of-compliance with environmental regulations.
For Region 6, the agency reduced air, water and hazardous waste pollution by 92 million pounds and made $ 237 million in environmental improvements.
It also settled 674 enforcement cases in Region 6, using federal court decisions, fines and enforcement actions.
“Two million for a state of Arkansas’ size, with the universe of industry that you have, that’s a good number,” Blevins said.
In Arkansas, the EPA regulates about 4, 500 facilities and between 3, 000 and 3, 500 more with one or more underground storage tank.
In July, the agency issued a cease-and-desist order against an El Dorado company, D and D Properties, now Columbian Chemicals Co., for illegally storing some 380, 000 pounds of carbon black. The material is used to reinforce rubber and plastic products.
The company had been storing the material in tanks that weren’t designed to store them, causing the waste to emit volatile organic compounds into the air.
The compounds include a variety of chemicals and are emitted from certain solids and liquids, according to the EPA’s Web site.
The agency ordered the company to remove the waste and properly dispose of it.
The company, according to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, manufactures carbon black. It was not permitted to store hazardous waste. The company has since applied for a hazardous-waste permit with the department. Their application is still being processed.
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