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WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

DEP sues Special Metals over waste violations

The Special Metals is located along U.S. 60 in Huntington. (Photo by Chris Dickerson)

HUNTINGTON - The director of the state Division of Water and Waste Management has filed a suit against Huntington's Special Metals, seeking $25,000 for each day the plant is in violation of hazardous waste management statutes.

According to the suit filed Oct. 3 in Cabell Circuit Court, Special Metals violated the West Virginia Hazardous Waste Management Act by failing to properly label and dispose of used oil and hazardous waste.

Scott Mandirola, the director of the Division of Water and Waste Management in the state's Department of Environmental Protection, claims the WVDEP conducted a compliance evaluation inspection of Special Metals on March 12, 2008.

According to the suit, the report found that more than 646,000 pounds of hazardous waste was brought in from Special Metals' Burnaugh, Ky., facility.

The waste was placed in a non-permitted concrete sump/life station at the Huntington facility, the suit says. According to the suit, Special Metals' permit allows only off-site hazardous waste to be placed into a "spent acid storage/reclaim tank" for treatment or in 55-gallon drums to be stored at the "hazardous waste container storage area."

Also, during the inspection, the suit says used oil was spilled on the ground next to an above-ground storage tank in front of the lab machine shop and truck wash within the facility. The suit says the oil was being stored without the words "used oil" properly labeled on the drums.

In the four-count suit, Mandirola and the WVDEP seek $25,000 per day in statutory civil penalties for each violation, which includes 26 shipments of illegally-stored hazardous waste, five used oil-labeling violations, and the failure to remediate two known areas of soil contaminated with used oil.

WVDEP senior counsel Mark J. Rudolph filed the suit. The case has been assigned to Judge David M. Pancake.

Cabell Circuit Court case number 08-C-850

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