Whatcom industrial site owners fined nearly $1M for dangerous waste violations
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Photo courtesy of Washington State Department of Ecology
Above-ground storage tanks, containment areas and other structures that were being unlawfully used to store dangerous waste on the Treoil industrial site in March 2017. Those structure were removed during a second multi-million dollar EPA cleanup of the site in 2022.
The Washington Department of Ecology issued a $900,000 fine to Treoil Industrial site's owners in Whatcom County on Tuesday, Dec. 5, for non-compliance with the state's dangerous waste laws.
The action comes after years of environmental negligence at the 34-acre site, historically used for refining biodiesel and processing tall oil - liquid rosin from pine trees.
The site, owned by Jagroop Gill and Campbell Land Corporation, has been a matter of environmental concern for decades. Located near wetlands and a creek in Ferndale, the site has amassed hundreds of thousands of gallons of oily waste, tons of solidified wastes and numerous containers of hazardous materials, posing a severe threat to the surrounding ecosystem, according to the Department of Ecology.
"Treoil's poor management of dangerous waste on its property has threatened human health and the environment for years," said Katrina Lassiter, the manager of Ecology's Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction program.
Neither Gill nor anyone at Campbell Land Corporation were immediately available for comment.
To read more from this article, visit: https://www.cascadiadaily.com/news/2023/dec/06/whatcom-industrial-site-fined-nearly-1m-for-dangerous-waste-violations/
