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In Settlement with EPA, Chemical Company Buys $20,000 of Haz Mat Gear for Gloucester City and Minimizes Waste

Release Date: 06/22/2000
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(#00123) New York, N.Y. – Emergency responders in Gloucester City, New Jersey have received $20,000 worth of essential equipment to help them better protect themselves, local residents and the environment from accidents involving toxic chemicals, as a result of a settlement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Amspec Chemical Corporation. EPA’s innovative Supplemental Environmental Project program gives companies that settle with the agency on certain violations, the option of doing projects to benefit human health and the environment. In settling with EPA on charges that it violated federal chemical reporting requirements, Amspec, located at 751 Water Street in Gloucester City, agreed to: purchase $20,000 worth of emergency response equipment for Gloucester City; make approximately $150,000 worth of environmental improvements to its facility that will reduce the amount of chemical waste it produces; and pay a cash penalty of $47,245. "Our penalty policy is the silver lining of an environmental violation," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Regional Administrator. "Rather than simply settling for a cash penalty from a facility we have charged with violations, we are able to allow the facility to give something back to the community. We are very pleased that our policy has benefitted residents of Gloucester City and their local environment, and we do not expect Amspec to repeat its mistakes in the future." EPA inspected Amspec in 1998 and determined that the company had failed to submit information about certain chemicals it used at its facility in 1995 and 1996. The company also disclosed that it filed information late about chemicals it used in 1997. After the tragic 1984 chemical release in Bhopal, India, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA), mandating EPA to obtain and make available to the public information about the toxic chemicals used and released into the environment by industry. Companies like Amspec must provide information to EPA by July 1 of every year about the use and release into the environment of over 650 toxic chemicals. This information is compiled by EPA annually into a Toxic Release Inventory, which is made available to the public at https://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/explorer.htm. EPA charged that Amspec failed to submit information about its use or release into the environment of antimony and antimony compounds, cobalt compounds and methanol in 1995 and 1996 and N-butyl alcohol in 1996. Subsequent to EPA’s inspection of the Amspec facility, the company disclosed that it did file forms for antimony and antimony compounds, cobalt compounds and chromium compounds in 1997, but that it filed them late. EPA also charged that Amspec violated the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which requires any company that intends to manufacture a new chemical to tell EPA first. This notification provides the agency with information about the chemical so that it can manage any potential risks that the chemical might pose to human health or the environment. Based on information voluntarily disclosed by Amspec, EPA found that the company had manufactured a new chemical, sodium propylate, on three occasions from 1994 to 1996 without notifying EPA beforehand. The equipment Amspec purchased for the Gloucester City Office of Emergency Management’s Hazardous Material Response Group includes: 32 hazardous materials protective suits, several chemical testing kits and cases of protective gloves and boots for handling hazardous materials. Amspec also agreed to install a new waste-minimizing "cobalt recovery system" by January 31, 2001. This system will capture approximately 90% of the chromium and cobalt salts the facility normally produces as waste from its manufacturing processes. Instead of being shipped off-site as waste to be disposed-of, the chemicals would be either reused by the company or used by other companies in place of fresh chemicals. Amspec, a subsidiary of Antimony Products of America, manufactures industrial inorganic chemicals and is the largest producer of antimony oxide products in North America. Amspec has annual sales of approximately $40 million.