Minnesota company fined for illegal waste storage

Roof Depot, which owned a store in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in Minneapolis for violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by illegally storing and disposing of hazardous wastes.

The court ordered Roof Depot to pay a $75,000 criminal fine, pay restitution of more than $36,000 to the Hennepin County Department of Environmental Services (HCDES) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, pay an additional $50,000 in restitution to the Midwest Environmental Enforcement Association, provide in-kind contributions of goods worth $190,000 to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, serve five years probation and pay an additional special assessment of $400.

In September 1998, the company brought several pallet-loads of hazardous waste roofing cement, strippers and solvents to its facility in Minneapolis and stored them behind some buildings under a tarp.

In March 1999, these hazardous wastes were buried in an unloading dock area that the company was filling and grading.

The case was investigated by the Minneapolis Office of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division with the assistance of the City of Minneapolis and HCDES. It was prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis.