After years of significant regulatory violations, The University of Georgia is closing the hazardous waste treatment facility that handles chemicals and material from 2,000 university laboratories.
Officials denied the closure was related to environmental violations at the facility, located near the banks of the Oconee River in Athens, but the decision followed two inspections by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that resulted in a settlement with the university and a $99,900 civil penalty.
EPA officials notified UGA President Jere Morehead Sept. 30 that the university has 30 days to pay the penalty. Under the terms of the agreement, Morehead agreed not to challenge or appeal the settlement.
In a statement issued in response to questions to President Morehead, the university said that it has been working to correct the violations that formed the basis of the settlement agreement, and noted that the EPA “made no finding of any environmental release which would have placed UGA students, faculty or staff in danger.”
The statement also said officials were working on “supplemental environmental projects” that it believes will offset the EPA penalties.
“We expect to have a further announcement in the coming weeks, but until such time we will have no further comment,” the university’s statement said.
The settlement with EPA stemmed from inspections in June 2014 and September 2015 that found numerous violations at the disposal facility, including: improper labeling of hazardous materials; improperly sealed containers; safety equipment that hadn’t been inspected; and radioactive hazardous waste that had been stored at the facility longer than EPA regulations allow.
In one instance, hazardous waste that was improperly consolidated with other types of waste resulted in a fire. The EPA cited the responsible officials for “mixing incompatible waste and failing to take precautions to prevent reactions which generate extreme heat or pressure, fire or explosion, or violent reactions.”
Similar violations resulted in a $275,000 civil penalty at Oregon State University in March of this year, according to the Corvallis Gazette-Times. In that case, however, the EPA found violations in multiple buildings on campus, and closer to students.
UGA environmental law professor Peter Appel said the size of the penalty leveled against UGA indicated that EPA considered the violations “not serious.”
“They’re violations, and EPA wants them rectified and is saying to the university, ‘You haven’t taken steps to rectify it,’” said Appel. “This is just, “OK, President Morehead, we meant it.’”
Troubled history, records show
In an interview, UGA’s associate vice president for environmental safety, John McCollum, said the university’s decision to shutter the 19-year-old facility was unrelated to the significant violations the EPA found in 2014 and 2015, and the settlement reached with EPA last month.
Although the settlement says that the university “neither admits nor denies the factual allegations and determinations” made by federal regulators, McCollum disputed the severity of the violations identified in the EPA review.
“Regulatory agencies would characterize things much differently than the people who are being regulated,” said McCollum.
In one example, McCollum described a violation the facility received for having an empty, unmarked truck at a loading dock to transport hazardous waste.
“Well, how can you say that?” he said. “You came and saw an empty truck sitting at a dock and made the assumption that we had used it.”
An eye-wash station that had recently been repaired and had a tag with its last date of inspection beside it instead of attached to it also drew a violation from the EPA, McCollum said. The EPA inspector did not see it and determined that the station had not been inspected.
Many of the violations were clerical or administrative mistakes that are hard to eliminate when handling waste from more than 2,000 research laboratories at a single facility, McCollum said.
“We didn’t have anything that was endangering anyone’s health or releases or anything like that,” he said.
Nonetheless, EPA records show a long and troubled history at the facility, located on Will Hunter Road.
The facility received four informal written actions in the last five years and has been in noncompliance or significant violation, the highest level of infraction, for 12 consecutive quarters, according to the facility’s compliance history on EPA’s website.
The EPA inspection in June 2014 found 21 violations. A state inspection then found violations in March 2015, and an EPA inspection found violations again in September 2015.
UGA plans multiple storage sites to handle waste
All chemicals have been removed from the facility, but the university is undergoing a review process by the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD), which will last until the end of October, McCollum said.
Once it’s been fully decommissioned for waste disposal, the facility will be repurposed for chemical suppliers to store new chemicals that they provide UGA’s labs, according to McCollum.
In place of the old treatment facility, the university will have five storage facilities located throughout its campus, and commercial vendors will remove the waste from them to their own treatment facilities.
The new storage facilities are located closer to where hazardous waste originates on campus, McCollum said.
“Instead of taking two or three days [to remove waste from a lab], it’s two or three hours,” said Bill Favaloro, Director of UGA’s Environmental Safety Division.
During the current transition period while the old facility and new facilities are not operational, vendors have been removing waste directly from the university’s laboratories, according to McCollum.
As part of the EPD review process, the university’s Environmental Safety Division has been submitting soil samples taken from around the facility. All have come back clean, indicating there have not been any releases of toxic materials from the building, McCollum said.
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