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USW Intends to Sue Giant Cement Holding Inc.
Union Demands Accurate Chemical Reporting; Penalty Could Be $6 Billion
For Immediate Release October 16, 2006
Summerville, SC – Today the United Steelworkers (USW) notified Giant Cement Holding, Inc. (GCHI) that the union is ready to sue to correct widespread environmental reporting problems at the company’s hazardous waste management facilities. In multiple “Notice of Intent to Sue” letters, the USW alleges that GCHI and three subsidiary facilities have repeatedly failed to report accurate information to state and federal regulators about the identity and quantity of toxic chemicals at GCHI operations in Alabama, Pennsylvania and South Carolina over the last five years.
“We’re trying to protect our union members and prevent an environmental disaster that could threaten any one of the communities where GCHI operates a facility,” said USW District Director Connie Entrekin. “It’s time for Giant to come clean and be truthful about the toxic chemicals that are used at the company’s facilities.”
Mr. Entrekin cited the recent disaster at EQ Industrial Services of Apex, North Carolina to underscore the risks at the GCHI facilities. On October 5, a raging fire forced the evacuation of 17,000 citizens in Apex. Dozens of firefighters, police officers and residents sought emergency care for respiratory difficulties, defective vision, and bloody noses. Days after the fire was out, town officials were upset because they still did not have complete information about the variety and quantity of chemicals that were inside the EQ facility.
“Each of these GCHI communities is an Apex waiting to happen,” Mr. Entrekin said. “In fact, something similar already did happen in Pennsylvania, thanks to GCHI’s negligent environmental mismanagement.”
In 1997, a fire in a hazardous waste storage tank at Keystone Cement forced the evacuation of 1,600 residents of Bath, Pa., including hundreds of children from two nearby schools. A state investigation found Keystone negligent, and the company paid nearly $500,000 in fines, much of it directed to benefit local firefighters, who worked courageously for hours to prevent an explosion.
In Apex, a fortuitous rainstorm saved the town from what could have been an even larger environmental catastrophe. EQ did not provide town officials with a list of chemicals at the facility until October 10, five days after firefighters and residents needed to have the information.
The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) requires some companies to report their routine releases of some 600 chemicals, under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). The public can use information reported to TRI to track toxic chemical releases to air, water and land in their communities.
In addition to 36 EPCRA TRI reporting violations, spanning the last three years of available data at Keystone Cement in Pennsylvania, the USW alleges that extensive TRI reporting violations have occurred at two other GCHI facilities: Giant Resource Recovery in Attalla, Alabama, and the Giant Cement/Giant Resource Recovery facilities in Harleyville, South Carolina.
Giant Resource Recovery-Attalla has a permitted capacity to store and treat up to 344,000 gallons of hazardous waste at a time. In the last five years, the facility has not reported any chemicals at all under EPCRA. The USW alleges that the facility, formerly known as M&M Chemical, should have been reporting information for at least 29 toxic chemicals, or 145 separate EPCRA TRI reporting violations.
At Giant Cement in Harleyville, South Carolina, the union has already filed a citizen suit against the company and its subsidiaries for their alleged failure to report under EPCRA for six specific TRI chemicals over three years. The USW recently uncovered twelve additional chemicals that the union suspects are not being reported properly. The Harleyville facility is the 10th largest recipient of hazardous waste in the United States, burning more than 100,000 tons of waste annually. Hazardous wastes are shipped to Harleyville from a variety of industrial generators, some as far away as Tijuana, Mexico.
If all of the allegations stick, Mr. Entrekin said that GCHI’s total liability could be as high as $6 billion as the Federal statute provides for the daily assessment of penalties, with maximum penalties of $32,500 per day, per chemical.
“The law calls for a serious fine because these are very dangerous violations,” said Mr. Entrekin. “GCHI could be putting union members and our communities at enormous risk. There has to be a heavy penalty to hold this company accountable and prevent other companies, in the cement industry and elsewhere, from doing the same.”
GCHI facilities across the country have consistently violated environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, according to the EPA’s enforcement and compliance history database. In the last three years alone, GCHI facilities have been the subject of more than 40 enforcement actions from state and federal regulators.
Giant Cement Holding, Inc. is the wholly owned US subsidiary of Spain’s Cementos Portland Valderrivas, which in turn is controlled by the construction and services conglomerate Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas. With 850,000 members, the USW is the largest industrial union in North America.
Contact: Jon Vandenburgh, USW, 412-562-2490
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