Bay Area port hazmat facility under new management

Bay Area port hazmat facility under new management A waste fuel shipping and rail transfer facility at the Port of Redwood City, once operated by a Bay Area hazardous-waste handler found in violation of numerous state regulations, has been taken over by another firm with no violations in Northern California.
   Norwell, Mass.-based waste handler Clean Harbors has assumed operations of the port facility and an East Palo Alto storage facility, both formerly operated by Romic Environmental Solutions. Romic closed their doors at the port this summer after the California Department of Toxic Substances Control found the East Palo Alto-based firm had violated numerous waste-storage laws at the 14-acre East Palo Alto facility, and was responsible for serious injuries sustained by an employee there. DTSC also found that Romic had violated state rules at the Redwood City facility, including accepting shipments in unauthorized vehicles, documentation errors, and maintenance issues regarding storage tanks.
   The one-acre Redwood City facility, one of only two hazardous-waste rail-transfer sites in California, was operated by Romic until certain assets including the port facility was purchased by Clean Harbors in July. Romic was using the facility to receive fuel waste from the East Palo Alto storage facility and ship it by rail to Bay Area industrial customers. Clean Harbors, which did not purchase the East Palo Alto facility, has said it wants to ship fuel from its San Jose plant to former Romic customers, most of which use the fuel waste to power cement production.
   Clean Harbors, which claims to be the largest hazardous-waste handler in North America, has operated facilities in California for nearly five years. While the firm does have DTSC violations related to shipment documentation at a Southern California facility, the firm's slate is clean in Northern California.
   The DTSC imposed restrictions on Romic's operations in May. In approving Clean Harbors to operate the facility in August, the state required the Massachusetts firm to abide by the restriction for the immediate future. The restrictions limit the size of on-site waste storage containers to 85-gallon barrels and limit the total amount of waste able to be kept at the port facility to just over 60,000 gallons.
   Clean Harbors operates 49 waste-handling facilities in 36 U.S. states, Canada and Puerto Rico.