FALL RIVER – Hardware restoration and re-plating company NuChrome Inc. has been cited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with continued noncompliance, the EPA’s New England district office in Boston said.
“The complaint was in response to what the EPA had perceived as a long-time delay in cleaning up the facility,” Scott Webster, NuChrome’s staff consultant for environmental affairs, told Providence Business News in a telephone interview this morning. “Before the complaint was filed, we started cleaning up as per their request. … NuChrome has been working very hard and diligently in addressing these issues.”
The dispute dates back to 1999, when the EPA accused NuChrome of violating several state and federal regulations by failing to safely and properly maintain its containers of hazardous waste. The plating and anodizing processes the company employs generate chromium, nickel and copper sludges, corrosive wastewater and cyanide-process wastewater, the agency noted.
In a settlement of that initial action, NuChrome agreed to pay a penalty of $25,000 and perform an environmentally beneficial project valued at $74,000, the EPA said in its most recent Complaint and Compliance Order. To date, the agency added, the company has paid only $3,000 of the penalty and has not performed the environmental project.
“NuChrome is negotiating that through the courts,” Webster said of the financial penalties, adding: “They are pretty steep.”
Follow-up investigations of the site in 2004, 2006 and 2008 found that “NuChrome continued to violate several of the requirements that had been cited in the previous inspections,” while the 2004 inspection also found chromium contamination of soil at the NuChrome facility, the EPA said.
“This is something the owner has been dealing with for a number of years … that’s why he brought me on board,” said Webster, who joined the company early this year.
“We are progressing very well toward resolving these issues. … We’ve been working very hard, long hours to do this, and we’re almost there,” he said.
The cleanup itself has been completed, he noted. “The nasties are out of here … it’s down to employee training and some housekeeping issues. … We have proper documentation and labeling. … We’re just kind of waiting for one of these other consultants, who’s charged with getting us the proper training for the guys, then we’re good to go.”
The company hopes that “the next time the EPA is down here, we’ll be in full compliance with them as well as OSHA,” Webster said. “It really shouldn’t be something that one dreads, anyway.”
To learn more about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s District 1 (New England) office in Boston, and its cleanup and enforcement actions under the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, visit www.epa.gov/region1.
NuChrome Inc., also doing business as Nu-Chrome Restoration, specializes in the restoration and re-plating or re-anodizing of car, truck, motorcycle and boat hardware. For more information, call (800) 422-8012 or visit www.nu-chrome.com.
