Contact: Sam Brungardt, 651-757-2249
St. Paul, Minn. -- Universal Circuits, Inc. has agreed to pay a $45,000 penalty for alleged environmental violations at its circuit-board-manufacturing facility located at 8860 Zachary Lane N. in Maple Grove, Minn.
The alleged violations were discovered in 2007 and 2008, during inspections by Hennepin County Department of Environmental Services staff. Hennepin County referred the violations to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for enforcement. The county and the MPCA have a Joint Powers Agreement facilitating the cooperative exercise of their authorities regulating hazardous waste management.
The manufacturing process at Universal Circuits’ Maple Grove facility uses hazardous materials and generates hazardous wastes containing or including sulfuric, hydrochloric and nitric acid and several other corrosive etching and cleaning chemicals; solvent waste containing xylene; and copper, lead, cyanide-containing and other wastes. The facility is licensed by Hennepin County as a Large Quantity Generator of Hazardous Waste.
During their inspections of the facility, Hennepin County staff observed and documented conditions indicating that Universal Circuits had failed to recover spilled hazardous wastes as rapidly and thoroughly as possible. Hennepin County staff also documented that industrial waste or other pollutants had breached a trench inside the building, resulting in a discharge from the facility to the soil, and facility staff had failed to prevent a release of corrosive hazardous waste acid.
Other alleged violations related to hazardous waste management at the facility were inadequate training of staff and inadequate recordkeeping, storing incompatible wastes together, failure to maintain enough space to allow the unobstructed movement of personnel and equipment, failure to maintain and keep current its emergency contingency plan, and failing to properly close or remove underground storage tanks (USTs).
In addition to paying the $45,000 penalty, Universal Circuits agreed to evaluate and remove all waste from the facility’s floors, trenches and USTs; prepare a plan for the review and assessment of the structural integrity of the facility’s tanks, floors, trench system, sanitary and storm sewer systems, and out-of-service USTs; submit a report on how and when inadequacies found during the assessment will be addressed; and submit a plan for cleaning up soil and groundwater if contaminated by chemicals released from the facility. The company has since corrected all alleged violations and is currently operating in compliance.
A stipulation agreement is one of the tools used to achieve compliance with environmental laws. When calculating penalties, the MPCA takes into account the potential for environmental harm as well as how seriously the violation affected the environment, whether it is a first-time or repeat violation, and how promptly the violation was reported to appropriate authorities. It also attempts to recover the calculated economic benefit gained by failing to comply with environmental laws in a timely manner. For a comprehensive list of enforcement actions taken by the MPCA, refer to the agency’s Web site at /newscenter/enforcement.html.
