Hazardous waste laws violated by Massachusetts business

The United States EPA has issued a Complaint and Compliance Order against NuChrome, Inc. for noncompliance and repeated violations of hazardous waste management laws.

NuChrome is a re-plating company located in Massachusetts. NuChrome’s replating process generates chromium, nickel and copper sludges, corrosive and cyanide process wastewaters.

EPA’s original administrative enforcement action against NuChrome took place in 1999. In that action, EPA alleged that NuChrome violated several federal and Massachusetts regulations pertaining to the management of hazardous waste at NuChrome’s facility by failing to safely and properly manage its containers of hazardous waste in accordance with applicable hazardous waste regulations.

NuChrome agreed to resolve the initial action by entering into a settlement that provided for a penalty payment of $25,000 and the performance of an environmentally beneficial project valued at $74,000. To date, NuChrome has paid only $3,000 of the penalty and has failed to perform the project.

A follow-up inspection of the facility in 2004 revealed that NuChrome continued to violate many of the same hazardous waste management regulations cited in the 1999 Complaint. At the time of the 2004 inspection, the perimeter soil at NuChrome’s facility was found to be contaminated with chromium.

EPA inspectors returned to NuChrome in 2006 and 2008 and determined that, once again, NuChrome continued to violate several of the requirements that had been cited in the previous inspections. As a result, EPA has ordered NuChrome to immediately address the continued violations of the hazardous waste management regulations.