Waste Management Statement Regarding United States EPA Consent Agreement
Kettleman City, Calif., Nov. 30, 2010 – Waste Management’s Kettleman Hills Facility issued the following statement in response to the Consent Agreement and Final Order it received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
Waste Management has fully resolved with U.S. EPA all issues relating to the safe management of PCBs at the Kettleman Hills facility. EPA has confirmed that the company’s cleanup meets all applicable standards and that the Kettleman Hills facility is fully authorized to handle federally regulated PCB wastes.
Bob Henry, senior district manager of the Kettleman Hills Facility stated, “While USEPA’s regulations typically require cleanups achieve a 25‐part‐per‐million standard, we elected to excavate to a significantly more stringent 1‐ppm level – the level EPA considers suitable for “high‐occupancy areas” such as residences, day care centers, schools and other areas where children or adults might be exposed to soil.
According to Brian Bowen, Waste Management’s director of environmental protection, “Extensive monitoring has confirmed that the small concentrations of PCBS were isolated to an area adjacent to the PCB storage and flushing building ‐‐ well within the facility boundary ‐‐ and did not present any risk to public health or the environment.”