Selective Structures pleaded guilty to illegally storing hazardous waste at its Athens, Tennessee facility. The company was ordered to pay $80,000 in criminal fines, $179,174.18 in penalties, and damages to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. In addition, Selective Structures was placed on probation for 37 months. A stipulation of the probation requires the company to hire a third party environmental consulting firm to conduct quarterly environmental compliance audits during the probation period and report the findings to the U.S. Justice Department.
According to the Justice Department, Selective Structures accumulated and stored spend Xylene solvent, a waste classified as hazardous, at their facility for longer than 90 days. According to the hazardous waste regulations, a company that generates >2,200 pounds of hazardous waste in any one month of a calendar year is not permitted to store hazardous waste on-site for longer than 90 days.
To make things worse, instead of hiring a licensed waste transportation/disposal company to dispose of the spend Xylene solvent properly, Selective Structures attempted to dispose of the highly flammable solvent by mixing it with large amounts of saw dust. A recipe for disaster.