Waste Management Case Study
Situation
In August 2004, our client, a major company with operations around the United States, received a criminal subpoena from the EPA, involving our client’s practice of sending refinery caustic from a refinery located in Washington to a paper mill to be reused as feed stock in the paper process. In the past, our client had sent the same material to Texas for use in making another chemical product. By sending the caustic to a local paper mill, our client was conserving energy resources and minimizing the potential for an environmental mishap during the long-haul transportation of the material to Texas. The investigation included our client, the paper mill, and one other refinery operated by another company.
Challenge
The EPA and Department of Ecology believed that our client’s practice of sending the chemical to the paper company constituted the unauthorized management and disposal of a hazardous waste.
Solutions
Marten Law Group, working closely with the client and criminal counsel, coordinated the response to the subpoena. This involved the identification and management of thousands of documents. Our attorneys convinced the EPA and Department of Ecology that sending the caustic to the local paper mill was a good practice. We had to explain the science, the regulations, and our client’s processes and intent. We argued and successfully convinced the agencies that the caustic should be regarded as hazardous material, not hazardous waste.
Results
After six months, we convinced the agencies that our client was doing the right thing, and the agencies sent our client a written determination authorizing our client to resume sending the caustic to the paper mill in early 2005. Recycling, reuse, reclamation, and recovery are encouraged “to the maximum extent possible” in the regulations, and this was a legitimate recycling activity. Based on the regulations, the refinery caustic was excluded from being considered as a waste.