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This SoCal hazardous waste facility could get a new permit despite past violations

News Feed
Tuesday, April 9, 2024

California regulators could soon grant a fresh permit for a hazardous waste treatment facility in Santa Fe Springs, even as they face off with the same company in court over alleged violations.The upcoming decision has alarmed environmental and community groups, which argue the Department of Toxic Substances Control should turn down Phibro-Tech for a renewed permit after a history of violating state rules. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science. The Santa Fe Springs site is near the unincorporated area of Los Nietos, a largely Latino neighborhood in Los Angeles County that ranks among the most pollution-burdened communities in the state. The hazardous waste treatment facility is roughly 550 feet from the nearest homes, according to the state agency.The Phibro-Tech facility had dozens of violations over the previous decade, according to a state analysis of its regulatory record. Last year, DTSC took the company to court, alleging that state inspectors checking the site before the COVID-19 pandemic had found leaking containers and other violations.Yet months before suing the company, staff at the same agency told worried neighbors that they had tentatively decided to renew the permit for the Santa Fe Springs facility. Serious violations had dwindled in recent years, Department of Toxic Substances Control representatives said, and the facility did not pose a significant threat to the neighborhood.State officials said they would make a final decision after weighing public comments. But as it stands, “we have decided that based on all the information available — including their compliance history and their recent record of improving compliance — that it is appropriate to approve the permit,” supervising hazardous substances engineer Phil Blum said at a July meeting.The Santa Fe Springs facility brings in hazardous waste and treats it to yield chemicals and metals like copper, which can then be used in electronics and other industries. Phibro-Tech said it “recycles waste that would otherwise need to be landfilled or injected into a deep well,” yielding copper without the harms of mining. It has been operating on an expired permit since 1996 — longer than any other hazardous waste facility in California, according to a recent court filing by the company. Under California rules, such facilities can keep operating on an expired permit if they turned in an application on time for a new one.The agency said that one reason the permitting process for Phibro-Tech had taken so many years was “to allow time for environmental sampling and technical assessments” that would inform its decision. In the meantime, DTSC said it had “continued to exercise its enforcement authority,” including by requiring cleanup of historic contamination.A state review found that over a decade, the Santa Fe Springs facility had more than two dozen violations. Last year, the state rated its compliance history as the eighth worst among 74 hazardous waste facilities in the state, based on a scoring system that tracks violations.Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has publicly called for the facility to be shut down “until it can come into compliance with the law,” saying it poses too great a threat to the community. DTSC “has a mandate to protect the public,” said Jaime Sanchez, a nearby resident and member of the local group Neighbors Against Phibro Tech. “But rather than protect the public, they have protected this industry ... at the expense of the health, safety and welfare of impacted communities.”Phibro-Tech said that the state had rated its compliance as “conditionally acceptable,” with a score just over the cutoff for “acceptable.” It said its record had improved dramatically in recent years and that the objections raised by Hahn are “based on a misunderstanding of the plant and its current operations.”DTSC officials told residents that the new permit would come with conditions to protect nearby communities, including maintaining gas detection sensors in critical areas.“The big picture story here is that DTSC has reviewed the operations of the facility in great detail. We’ve required extensive changes to how the operations will be conducted under a new permit. And we believe that it demonstrates that the facility can be operated safely,” Blum said at a 2022 meeting. A portion of residential Los Nietos, seen in the bottom of this image, is across a street and an empty lot from Phibro-Tech, which processes hazardous waste. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) Byron Chan, a senior attorney with the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice, argued that the agency should not give a new permit to “a facility that has shown that it’s not interested in complying.” He said it seemed like fines had become the “cost of doing business” for Phibro-Tech, calling it “an ongoing pattern of unaccountability.”“You’ll see a pattern of violating the law, paying a penalty, and then violating the law again,” he said.Five years ago, the agency announced that the company had to pay $495,000 in penalties for violations including storing hazardous waste outside of allowed areas. Earthjustice has also cited past incidents at the Santa Fe Springs facility in which ammonia and hydrochloric acid had been released at the site and workers had been burned with acid.Phibro-Tech said in a statement that the chemical releases cited by the environmental group had not threatened the community and that it had adjusted operations to prevent them from recurring. “If a violation is found,” the company said, “we take immediate action to rectify it as quickly as possible.”In its September lawsuit, DTSC alleged the company had broken the law by keeping hazardous waste in leaking containers, one of several violations found by inspectors visiting the facility in 2019. It also faulted Phibro-Tech for failing to promptly dismantle a basin where hazardous waste had been processed in decades past. (The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, another group opposing a new permit for the facility, argued that failing to do that increases the risk of contaminants spreading.) Phibro-Tech said many of the alleged violations had resulted from the agency shifting positions. The company said the decades-old permit no longer reflects how DTSC interprets when equipment is handling waste rather than “product,” and that the ambiguity had led to citations for “operating longstanding equipment.” It also disputed state claims about leaking containers and the required timeline for closing the basin, which it said was now completed. All in all, it said, the allegations “are not relevant to today.” DTSC, in turn, said that Phibro-Tech had “returned to compliance” for the violations alleged in the suit. Chan said the state department appeared to be relying on “a false standard ... that if it was not complying with the law yesterday, but it’s in compliance today, then that’s OK.”It’s “ignoring everything that’s happened in the past,” he said.In a letter opposing a renewed permit, Earthjustice said the state agency had failed to do the proper level of environmental review for the decision. It also complained that the agency had not collected any information about pollution levels beyond the borders of the Phibro-Tech facility. Neighbors have raised concerns about industrial contamination at the site, including with hexavalent chromium, the carcinogen perhaps best known as the target of famous activist Erin Brockovich. “We want to live in a safe environment. ... We don’t want to be concerned about our health, safety and welfare [coming] at the expense of some company making profit,” resident Sanchez said.Phibro-Tech said it had taken on responsibility for the contamination caused by a prior operator. DTSC officials said cleanup efforts by the company had brought hexavalent chromium in the soil at the site down to safe levels.DTSC has not identified “significant health hazards from the operation of the facility,” Blum said last year.

Environmental and community groups want the state to turn down Phibro-Tech for a renewed permit for its Santa Fe Springs facility.

California regulators could soon grant a fresh permit for a hazardous waste treatment facility in Santa Fe Springs, even as they face off with the same company in court over alleged violations.

The upcoming decision has alarmed environmental and community groups, which argue the Department of Toxic Substances Control should turn down Phibro-Tech for a renewed permit after a history of violating state rules.

Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.

The Santa Fe Springs site is near the unincorporated area of Los Nietos, a largely Latino neighborhood in Los Angeles County that ranks among the most pollution-burdened communities in the state. The hazardous waste treatment facility is roughly 550 feet from the nearest homes, according to the state agency.

The Phibro-Tech facility had dozens of violations over the previous decade, according to a state analysis of its regulatory record. Last year, DTSC took the company to court, alleging that state inspectors checking the site before the COVID-19 pandemic had found leaking containers and other violations.

Yet months before suing the company, staff at the same agency told worried neighbors that they had tentatively decided to renew the permit for the Santa Fe Springs facility. Serious violations had dwindled in recent years, Department of Toxic Substances Control representatives said, and the facility did not pose a significant threat to the neighborhood.

State officials said they would make a final decision after weighing public comments.

But as it stands, “we have decided that based on all the information available — including their compliance history and their recent record of improving compliance — that it is appropriate to approve the permit,” supervising hazardous substances engineer Phil Blum said at a July meeting.

The Santa Fe Springs facility brings in hazardous waste and treats it to yield chemicals and metals like copper, which can then be used in electronics and other industries. Phibro-Tech said it “recycles waste that would otherwise need to be landfilled or injected into a deep well,” yielding copper without the harms of mining.

It has been operating on an expired permit since 1996 — longer than any other hazardous waste facility in California, according to a recent court filing by the company. Under California rules, such facilities can keep operating on an expired permit if they turned in an application on time for a new one.

The agency said that one reason the permitting process for Phibro-Tech had taken so many years was “to allow time for environmental sampling and technical assessments” that would inform its decision. In the meantime, DTSC said it had “continued to exercise its enforcement authority,” including by requiring cleanup of historic contamination.

A state review found that over a decade, the Santa Fe Springs facility had more than two dozen violations. Last year, the state rated its compliance history as the eighth worst among 74 hazardous waste facilities in the state, based on a scoring system that tracks violations.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has publicly called for the facility to be shut down “until it can come into compliance with the law,” saying it poses too great a threat to the community.

DTSC “has a mandate to protect the public,” said Jaime Sanchez, a nearby resident and member of the local group Neighbors Against Phibro Tech. “But rather than protect the public, they have protected this industry ... at the expense of the health, safety and welfare of impacted communities.”

Phibro-Tech said that the state had rated its compliance as “conditionally acceptable,” with a score just over the cutoff for “acceptable.” It said its record had improved dramatically in recent years and that the objections raised by Hahn are “based on a misunderstanding of the plant and its current operations.”

DTSC officials told residents that the new permit would come with conditions to protect nearby communities, including maintaining gas detection sensors in critical areas.

“The big picture story here is that DTSC has reviewed the operations of the facility in great detail. We’ve required extensive changes to how the operations will be conducted under a new permit. And we believe that it demonstrates that the facility can be operated safely,” Blum said at a 2022 meeting.

Homes in the foreground of this overhead image are close to industrial businesses, including a hazardous waste facility.

A portion of residential Los Nietos, seen in the bottom of this image, is across a street and an empty lot from Phibro-Tech, which processes hazardous waste.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Byron Chan, a senior attorney with the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice, argued that the agency should not give a new permit to “a facility that has shown that it’s not interested in complying.” He said it seemed like fines had become the “cost of doing business” for Phibro-Tech, calling it “an ongoing pattern of unaccountability.”

“You’ll see a pattern of violating the law, paying a penalty, and then violating the law again,” he said.

Five years ago, the agency announced that the company had to pay $495,000 in penalties for violations including storing hazardous waste outside of allowed areas. Earthjustice has also cited past incidents at the Santa Fe Springs facility in which ammonia and hydrochloric acid had been released at the site and workers had been burned with acid.

Phibro-Tech said in a statement that the chemical releases cited by the environmental group had not threatened the community and that it had adjusted operations to prevent them from recurring. “If a violation is found,” the company said, “we take immediate action to rectify it as quickly as possible.”

In its September lawsuit, DTSC alleged the company had broken the law by keeping hazardous waste in leaking containers, one of several violations found by inspectors visiting the facility in 2019.

It also faulted Phibro-Tech for failing to promptly dismantle a basin where hazardous waste had been processed in decades past. (The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, another group opposing a new permit for the facility, argued that failing to do that increases the risk of contaminants spreading.)

Phibro-Tech said many of the alleged violations had resulted from the agency shifting positions. The company said the decades-old permit no longer reflects how DTSC interprets when equipment is handling waste rather than “product,” and that the ambiguity had led to citations for “operating longstanding equipment.”

It also disputed state claims about leaking containers and the required timeline for closing the basin, which it said was now completed.

All in all, it said, the allegations “are not relevant to today.” DTSC, in turn, said that Phibro-Tech had “returned to compliance” for the violations alleged in the suit.

Chan said the state department appeared to be relying on “a false standard ... that if it was not complying with the law yesterday, but it’s in compliance today, then that’s OK.”

It’s “ignoring everything that’s happened in the past,” he said.

In a letter opposing a renewed permit, Earthjustice said the state agency had failed to do the proper level of environmental review for the decision. It also complained that the agency had not collected any information about pollution levels beyond the borders of the Phibro-Tech facility.

Neighbors have raised concerns about industrial contamination at the site, including with hexavalent chromium, the carcinogen perhaps best known as the target of famous activist Erin Brockovich.

“We want to live in a safe environment. ... We don’t want to be concerned about our health, safety and welfare [coming] at the expense of some company making profit,” resident Sanchez said.

Phibro-Tech said it had taken on responsibility for the contamination caused by a prior operator. DTSC officials said cleanup efforts by the company had brought hexavalent chromium in the soil at the site down to safe levels.

DTSC has not identified “significant health hazards from the operation of the facility,” Blum said last year.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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Just past a scrum of dog walkers, about 40 people are urgently combing through the sand on hands and knees. Their task is to try to remove millions of peppercorn-sized black plastic biobeads from where they have settled in the sand. Beyond them, a seal carcass grins menacingly, teeth protruding from its rotting skull.Last week, an environmental disaster took place on Camber Sands beach, on what could turn out to be an unprecedented scale. Eastbourne Wastewater Treatment Works, owned by Southern Water, experienced a mechanical failure and spewed out millions of biobeads on to the Sussex coastline. Southern Water has since taken responsibility for the spill. Ironically, biobeads are used to clean wastewater – bacteria attach to their rough, crinkly surface and clean the water of contaminants.In the days since, volunteers have flocked to the beach. On a chilly November morning, beneath a blue sky, they painstakingly pick out the minuscule beads by hand. It is mind-numbingly tedious work.Others – much to the envy of the hand-pickers – have sieves. One volunteer has fashioned a sieve from a mesh onion sack found nearby.“We’re scooping up the sand, then pouring the sand over a bucket into a sieve, and then pouring the water on top, so that we just get the beads,” says Hastings resident Roisin O’Gorman.Andy Dinsdale, the founder of Strandliners, an environmental organisation that runs beach cleanups, says: “They’ve got to get down on their hands and knees, almost into the strandline [the line of seaweed and other debris that lines the high water mark on beaches], to look for very small 5mm black pellets. We can only do our best.”Kneeling on the sand, on your knees, just picking them out, one by one, is futileHe is noticeably exhausted from his days-long effort coordinating the cleanup. He has missed his son’s birthday celebrations, he says, to be here.Despite their valiant efforts, many volunteers feel helpless. Walking tramples the plastic further into the sand and overfilled bin bags of waste can split, putting workers back to square one. “Kneeling on the sand, on your knees, just picking them out, one by one, is futile,” says Nick, a volunteer from Tunbridge Wells, in frustration.To make more of a dent, experts have brought in a special machine. “Do you remember Teletubbies?” says Dinsdale. 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Although the low level of I-129 in the water in Europe is not considered to pose health risks, the U.S. approach of deep underground disposal leads to far less I-129 being released, the researchers found.The researchers also investigated the effect of environmental regulations and technologies related to I-129 management, to illuminate the tradeoffs associated with different approaches around the world.“Putting these pieces together to provide a comprehensive view of Iodine-129 is important,” says MIT Assistant Professor Haruko Wainwright, a first author on the paper who holds a joint appointment in the departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “There are scientists that spend their lives trying to clean up iodine-129 at contaminated sites. These scientists are sometimes shocked to learn some countries are releasing so much iodine-129. This work also provides a life-cycle perspective. We’re not just looking at final disposal and solid waste, but also when and where release is happening. It puts all the pieces together.”MIT graduate student Kate Whiteaker SM ’24 led many of the analyses with Wainwright. Their co-authors are Hansell Gonzalez-Raymat, Miles Denham, Ian Pegg, Daniel Kaplan, Nikolla Qafoku, David Wilson, Shelly Wilson, and Carol Eddy-Dilek. The study appears today in Nature Sustainability.Managing wasteIodine-129 is often a key focus for scientists and engineers as they conduct safety assessments of nuclear waste disposal sites around the world. It has a half-life of 15.7 million years, high environmental mobility, and could potentially cause cancers if ingested. The U.S. sets a strict limit on how much I-129 can be released and how much I-129 can be in drinking water — 5.66 nanograms per liter, the lowest such level of any radionuclides.“Iodine-129 is very mobile, so it is usually the highest-dose contributor in safety assessments,” Wainwright says.For the study, the researchers calculated the release of I-129 across three different waste management strategies by combining data from current and former reprocessing sites as well as repository assessment models and simulations.The authors defined the environmental impact as the release of I-129 into the biosphere that humans could be exposed to, as well as its concentrations in surface water. They measured I-129 release per the total electrical energy generated by a 1-gigawatt power plant over one year, denoted as kg/GWe.y.Under the U.S. approach of deep underground disposal with barrier systems, assuming the barrier canisters fail at 1,000 years (a conservative estimate), the researchers found 2.14 x 10–8 kg/GWe.y of I-129 would be released between 1,000 and 1 million years from today.They estimate that 4.51 kg/GWe.y of I-129, or 91 percent of the total, would be released into the biosphere in the scenario where fuel is reprocessed and the effluents are diluted and released. About 3.3 percent of I-129 is captured by gas filters, which are then disposed of in shallow subsurfaces as low-level radioactive waste. A further 5.2 percent remains in the waste stream of the reprocessing plant, which is then disposed of as high-level radioactive waste.If the waste is recycled with gas filters to directly capture I-129, 0.05 kg/GWe.y of the I-129 is released, while 94 percent is disposed of in the low-level disposal sites. For shallow disposal, some kind of human disruption and intrusion is assumed to occur after government or institutional control expires (typically 100-1,000 years). That results in a potential release of the disposed amount to the environment after the control period.Overall, the current practice of recycling spent nuclear fuel releases the majority of I-129 into the environment today, while the direct disposal of spent fuel releases around 1/100,000,000 that amount over 1 million years. When the gas filters are used to capture I-129, the majority of I-129 goes to shallow underground repositories, which could be accidentally released through human intrusion down the line.The researchers also quantified the concentration of I-129 in different surface waters near current and former fuel reprocessing facilities, including the English Channel and the North Sea near reprocessing plants in France and U.K. They also analyzed the U.S. Columbia River downstream of a site in Washington state where material for nuclear weapons was produced during the Cold War, and they studied a similar site in South Carolina. The researchers found far higher concentrations of I-129 within the South Carolina site, where the low-level radioactive effluents were released far from major rivers and hence resulted in less dilution in the environment.“We wanted to quantify the environmental factors and the impact of dilution, which in this case affected concentrations more than discharge amounts,” Wainwright says. “Someone might take our results to say dilution still works: It’s reducing the contaminant concentration and spreading it over a large area. On the other hand, in the U.S., imperfect disposal has led to locally higher surface water concentrations. This provides a cautionary tale that disposal could concentrate contaminants, and should be carefully designed to protect local communities.”Fuel cycles and policyWainwright doesn’t want her findings to dissuade countries from recycling nuclear fuel. She says countries like Japan plan to use increased filtration to capture I-129 when they reprocess spent fuel. Filters with I-129 can be disposed of as low-level waste under U.S. regulations.“Since I-129 is an internal carcinogen without strong penetrating radiation, shallow underground disposal would be appropriate in line with other hazardous waste,” Wainwright says. “The history of environmental protection since the 1960s is shifting from waste dumping and release to isolation. But there are still industries that release waste into the air and water. We have seen that they often end up causing issues in our daily life — such as CO2, mercury, PFAS and others — especially when there are many sources or when bioaccumulation happens. The nuclear community has been leading in waste isolation strategies and technologies since the 1950s. These efforts should be further enhanced and accelerated. But at the same time, if someone does not choose nuclear energy because of waste issues, it would encourage other industries with much lower environmental standards.”The work was supported by MIT’s Climate Fast Forward Faculty Fund and the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Suggested Viewing

From Trash To Treasure: Turning Negatives into Positives in Lesotho

From erosion to overgrazing to enduring poverty, the people of Lesotho—a highland country surrounded by South Africa—face a variety of difficult challenges. Yet grassroots communities in the country also exhibit tremendous resourcefulness and creativity. In particular, a wealth of artists have mastered a talent for resurrection, developing the skill to creatively turn negatives into positives: Designers who turn discarded trash into beautiful jewelry, clothes, rugs. Filmmakers who turn tragedy into artistic expressions of resilience and compassion. Musicians who write songs to save the environment. In this short, Cultures of Resistance Films profiles a variety of these inventive creators, introducing viewers to a fascinating cast of local residents who are using art as a means of communicating a communal desire for positive change.

Culture
Waste
Solutions

Cardboard Scavengers

The documentary explores scavenging practices in Laredo, Texas, focusing on the informal transborder recycling on the U.S.-Mexico border. The focus is on a married couple who are cartoneros (cardboard scavengers). Chole and Jose cross the border daily to collect cardboard and then transport it into Mexico to sell. The film depicts the ongoing interdependence of the economies of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo. It introduces audiences to two people who depend on scavenging practices that help both countries' economies and recycling efforts.

Culture
Sustainable
Solutions

The Divers

Talitha, who works in the non-profit sector, finds ways to make her dollar stretch by dumpster diving* to rescue and reclaim unused food. Director How is a graduate of the prestigious MFA Directing program at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. *Miriam-Webster: The practice of searching through public trash receptacles for edible food or discarded items that retain some use or value.

Food
Waste
Culture

The Life of a Plastic Cup

This film focuses on the global problem of how plastic is destroying our wildlife and polluting our seas. A plastic cup is personified and goes on its own adventure. Awarded Film of the Festival at the Blaenau Gwent Film Festival for young people.

Animation
Waste
Student

Life - Plastic Wrapped

Life: Plastic Wrapped was filmed and edited during 2020 Quarantine. Did you know plastics are making a HUGE comeback due to COVID-19? The increase of plastic production and waste has been directly affected by this global pandemic. The poem, "I am a head in a plastic bag (for Sasha)" was written by collaborator Haley White in relation to my obsession with our plastic problem. Taking ownership of my own participation in our plastic world and climate catastrophe has allowed me to contemplate these issues on a deeper level.

Dance
Waste
Culture

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