An aircraft interior maintenance company in Burlington will pay the state $37,996 to settle violations for mishandling dangerous waste and for a spill that occurred in 2015. Washington Department of Ecology inspectors found 17 violations of dangerous waste regulations at VT Volant Aerosystems (Volant) in December 2015 and 12 violations, nine of them repeats from the earlier inspection, in April 2017.
The 2015 inspection followed a spill of process water from a broken pipe inside the facility that contained hazardous methyl ethyl ketone. The spill was cleaned up by the facility.
Since the April 2017 inspection, Volant has cooperated with Ecology on complying with the regulations.
“For several years, we’d inspect, find violations, they’d correct them, and the next time we’d find violations again, many of them repeated,” said Darin Rice, who manages Ecology’s Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction program. “This time, Volant is making efforts to stay in compliance. We’re pleased to see this, because following these regulations helps protect public safety and the environment.”
The penalty was originally $57,000, but VT Volant Aerosystems entered into an expedited settlement agreement with Ecology to reduce the recommended penalty by one-third to $37,996. As part of the settlement, Volant waives its right to appeal. Ecology’s expedited settlement process saves the state, its taxpayers, and Volant the expense of costly litigation.
The violations observed in the inspections included:
- Failure to send dangerous waste to a permitted transfer, storage and disposal facility.
- Failure to take appropriate mitigation and control actions after a spill.
- Inadequate personnel training program.
- Failure to properly label dangerous waste containers.
- Failure to properly manage universal wastes.