Dan Wheat/Capital Press The gutted remains of one of Northwest Wholesale’s buildings in Wenatchee, Wash., still smolder the morning after it was destroyed by fire in June 2015. An environmental company is paying a fine for hazardous waste violations in the cleanup.
Dan Wheat Capital Press
Published on August 23, 2016 11:50AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. — An environmental response company has agreed to pay a $39,330 settlement for hazardous waste violations that occurred in handling cleanup from a June 2015 wildfire that severely damaged several businesses in Wenatchee.
NRC Environmental Services Inc., Great River, N.Y., made its first monthly payment of $1,100 on Aug. 3, said Joye Redfield-Wilder, a Washington Department of Ecology spokeswoman in Union Gap, Wash. The company will make the payments over the next three years, she said.
NRC waived its right to appeal by reaching a settlement that reduced the penalty by $20,000 and saves all parties costly litigation.
Northwest Wholesale Inc., a Wenatchee farm chemical company, lost several buildings in the June 28, 2015, Sleepy Hollow fire that also destroyed more than two dozen high-end homes, two major tree fruit packing plants and damaged another business.
Northwest Wholesale hired NRC to manage cleanup, including damaged containers of the fumigant gas methyl bromide.
NRC took appropriate steps to safely purge the gas from the containers, producing about 14,000 gallons of highly acidic wastewater that was stored at the site pending disposal, Ecology said.
In January, Northwest Wholesale discovered a tank containing the wastewater drained due to the corrosion of an unlined valve, Ecology said. The wastewater leaked into a dry well requiring cleanup.
The companies reported the leak and cooperated with the investigation and cleanup but the material had not been stored properly or handled in a timely fashion, said Darin Rice, Ecology’s Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program manager.
Ecology inspectors identified four violations:
• Failing to properly dispose of dangerous waste.
• Accumulating dangerous waste on site for more than 90 days.
• Storing waste in unsuitable containers.
• Failing to inspect waste areas weekly, as required.
In an Ecology news release, Ken Knappert, general manager of Northwest Wholesale, and Bob Keesee, NRC vice president, both said their companies are committed to protecting the environment.
“NRC is committed to ongoing compliance with regulations concerning hazardous waste and has taken this opportunity to re-emphasize internal policies designed to ensure that such a release will not happen again,” Keesee said