PHILADELPHIA – An administrative law judge has assessed a $151,800 penalty against Environmental Protection Services, Inc. (EPS) for improper storage and disposal of equipment containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at the company’s scrap metal recovery facility in Wheeling, W.Va., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.
In a March 7, 2006 decision, Administrative Law Judge Carl C. Charneski ruled that EPS was liable for violating federal regulations designed to protect public health and the environment from PCBs, a toxic substance and probable human carcinogen.
PCBs were once widely used as a nonflammable coolant for transformers and other electrical equipment. In 1976, Congress enacted the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which strictly regulated the manufacture, use and disposal of PCBs. The 2001 complaint against EPS was EPA’s first case enforcing TSCA regulations for the burning of PCB-contaminated materials in scrap metal ovens.