Western Arizona Landfills to Pay Penalty Totaling $58, 000 to Resolve Solid Waste Violations in Yuma, La Paz Counties
PHOENIX AZ (2/4/2010) – The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and Arizona Attorney General’s Office announced today that two western Arizona landfills, one owned by Allied Waste Industries Inc. and the other owned by a subsidiary of Allied Waste, have agreed to pay a $58,000 penalty under a consent judgment for solid waste violations.
Allied Waste Industries’ La Paz County Landfill, located south of Parker, has agreed to pay a $47,000 penalty after an inspection by ADEQ’s Solid Waste Inspections and Compliance Unit in May 2008 found soil contaminated by petroleum and hot lead slag was being used as landfill cover at the site.
The inspection also found exposed solid waste in the northeast and southeast sections and slopes of the landfill, three exposed bags of asbestos and exposed automobile shredder residue on the landfill surface.
Copper Mountain Landfill, a subsidiary of Allied Waste near the Town of Wellton in Yuma County, agreed to pay an $11,000 penalty after a July 2008 inspection. ADEQ inspectors found piles of exposed contaminated soil spread over a landfill slope, a 55-gallon drum of soil contaminated by used oil stored in a vehicle maintenance area and no copies of a special waste manifest required for petroleum contaminated soil.
“This hazardous management of solid waste put employees and the community at risk but the company has remedied the situation,” ADEQ Director Benjamin H. Grumbles said.
"Any company handling solid waste needs to rigorously comply with state standards to protect the health of our citizens and our environment," Attorney General Terry Goddard said. "Among Arizona's greatest assets are its natural beauty and quality of life. All of us - individuals and businesses alike - have a responsibility to protect those assets for future generations."
The consent judgment is subject to court approval.