Pesticide Company Hit With $500,000 Fine

A pesticide formulating company has been hit with a $500,000 fine
for felony violations of RCRA that resulted in contamination of a
rural area in Baskin, LA, EPA said.

Micro Chemical Co. Inc., Winnsboro, LA., was sentenced for
illegally transporting about a truckload of toxaphene and methyl
parathion waste from its pesticide operations to an unpermitted
site in 1990. The company received five years probation, must pay
a $500,000 fine and was ordered to comply with an EPA
corrective action order. The order requires the removal of all
contaminated soil at the site, remediation of groundwater and the
cleanup of all off-site contamination that resulted from
pesticide waste flowing into a nearby creek. 

An EPA official said Micro Chemical had claimed that it had
accumulated the pesticide waste on the Baskin site with the
intention of eventually applying it to crops in the area. The
hazardous waste was ultimately removed by the Louisiana
Department of Agriculture.

(From: KSU Pesticide Newsletter Vol. 18, No. 8)