EPA v. HI-ACRES LLC dba FOREMOST FERTILIZERS, INC.

Case summary

Hi-Acres, LLC, d/b/a Foremost Fertilizer, Inc., (?Hi-Acres?or ?Defendant?) violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (?RCRA?) (42 U.S.C. ?? 6901-6922k), and the implementing regulations at 40 C.F.R. Parts 260 through 280, and the correlating Florida statutes and implementing regulations relating to the generation, storage, handling and disposal of hazardous wastes, and also violated RCRA Section 3004(d), 42 U.S.C. ? 6924(d), relating to the disposal of hazardous wastes restricted from land disposal. The State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection (?State?) is a co-plaintiff in this action. The Defendant has agreed to pay a penalty of $400,000 to be evenly split with the State, and to perform corrective action and injunctive relief sought by the United States and the State. Hi-Acres owns and operates a retail sales outlet for pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. The facility is located in Leesburg, Lake County, Florida. On March 16, 2005, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (?FDEP?) conducted a RCRA hazardous waste compliance inspection at the Facility in response to a citizen complaint that chemicals were allegedly ?eating through drums and leaking on the ground.? Subsequently, samples were taken which showed that some of the materials stored at the Facility were RCRA characteristic wastes because of ignitability, corrosiveness or because they failed the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (?TLCP?). In addition, the soil surrounding the materials that had been spilled on the ground was also found to be contaminated above the FDEP?s Soil Cleanup Target Levels for several coal tar constituents. Defendant violated RCRA by not having a RCRA permit for storage or disposal, nor was it operating under interim status. In addition, Defendant failed to: 1) provide notification of hazardous waste activity; 2) properly label waste containers; 3) provide personnel training; 4) have a contingency plan; 5) conduct inspections; 6) comply with land disposal restrictions; 7) characterize solid waste; and 8) obtain an EPA identification number. In addition to the penalty, the Defendant must commence site rehabilitation in accordance with State of Florida rules and regulations for all solid waste management units (?SWMUs?) and areas of contamination (?AOCs?). The Defendant is required to commence and complete a site assessment within ninety days of final approval of a site assessment plan. Following this, the Defendant shall submit a Remedial Action Plan for the contaminated sites developed in accordance with State of Florida rules and regulations. The Remedial Action Plan must include a provision for the Defendant to submit periodic status reports to the EPA and FDEP. When the site remediation is complete, the Defendant shall submit to the EPA and FDEP a site rehabilitation completion report. In addition, within sixty days of notification by FDEP, the Defendant will be required to submit a plan for all necessary environmental monitoring to ensure the effectiveness of the on-going remedy. The monitoring requirements include groundwater monitoring. Defendant will be required to notify the EPA and FDEP within fifteen calendar days of discovery of any newly discovered releases of contaminants to the environment, and any suspected new AOCs or SWMUs discovered during the course of monitoring, field investigations, environmental audits or other means.

Defendants (2)

• HI-ACRES dba FOREMOST FERTILIZERS (SB)Named in complaintNamed in settlement
• FOREMOST FERTILIZERS, INC. (SB)Named in complaintNamed in settlement

Facilities (1)

• FOREMOST FERTILIZERS

  900 THOMAS AVE, LEESBURG, FL, 347483629

  Registry ID: 110021006631

Statutes cited

• RCRA 3004VU — TSD Corrective Action
• RCRA 3004 — Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Standards
• RCRA 3005 — Permits for Treatment, Storage, or Disposal of Hazardous Waste
• RCRA 3010 — Notification of Hazardous Waste Activity

Enforcement conclusions (1)

• HI-ACRES LLC dba FOREMOST FERTILIZERS, INC. (04-2011-C024)entered 2011-09-26

  Primary law: RCRA

  Federal penalty: $200,000 · State/local: $200,000

Timeline (6 milestones)

• 2007-09-10Referred To Dept Of Justice
• 2007-09-18Enforcement Action Data Entered
• 2011-07-08Complaint Filed With Court
• 2011-09-16Final Order Lodged
• 2011-09-26Concluded
• 2011-09-26Final Order Entered