HAZARDOUS WASTE VIOLATIONS

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

Posting from Lenny Siegel <lsiegel>

June 2, 1995

Dear Friends,

 Attached is a press release which was issued this morning. I would
appreciate your assistance in forwarding this announcement to your press
contacts, and to other individuals or organizations who may be able to make
use of information documenting hazardous waste violations commited by the
federal government.

 Please call me at (215) 396-0369 or e-mail me at ECOCorp@aol.com if you
have any questions or would like information about a specific government
facility or a specific geographic area.

 Sincerely,

 Larry Falkin
 ECOCorp President

For Immediate Release Contact: Larry Falkin
June 2, 1995 (215) 396-0369

Government Mishandles Toxic Chemicals at 322 Locations

 ECOCorp, a non-profit environmental citizen group, released information
today showing that the Federal Government is violating its own hazardous
waste requirements at 322 locations nationwide. The information, much of
which was previously withheld from the public by the government, was obtained
through litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

 The information released today consists of a printout from a database
maintained by EPA showing the results of EPA and State hazardous waste
inspections at facilities owned or operated by the federal government. The
complete printout (445 pages), which lists more than 2000 separate violations
at the 322 facilities, or portions of the printout covering a specific
geographic area, can be obtained by contacting ECOCorp.

 "ECOCorp requested this information from the government more than 2 years
ago, and despite FOIA appeals and litigation, the government refused to
release this information or give a reason for withholding it. This
stonewalling is especially outrageous because what the government was
withholding was information about its own misdeeds" said ECOCorp President
Lawrence Falkin. He continued, "The federal government is spending billions
of dollars each year to clean up the damage from past mismanagement of
chemicals, and claims that they have a program to prevent new problems. This
information shows that the government is not doing nearly enough to guard
against their own chemical mishaps." 

 The violating facilities are spread throughout 44 states plus D.C. and U.S.
territories, with the greatest concentrations occurring in California (31
sites), Washington D.C. (22 sites), and Texas (20 sites).

 The agency with by far the most violating facilities was the Department of
Defense (216 sites) with the Department of Energy (19 sites) finishing a
distant second. Also notable on the list of hazardous waste violators were
our nation's hazardous waste enforcers: the EPA (7 sites) and the Department
of Justice (6 sites). 

 The violations identified in today's announcement may be only the tip of the
iceberg. Only a small percentage of the government's facilities are
inspected each year, so most violations go undetected. EPA statistics
indicate that if all federal facilities were inspected, more than 1000 would
be found to have serious hazardous waste violations.

 ECOCorp is the Environmental Compliance Oversight Corporation, a group
focused primarily on citizen suit enforcement of hazardous waste laws.