Wisconsin DNR says Milwaukee industrial barrel plants broke environmental laws

Three Milwaukee-area industrial barrel refurbishing plants have been cited by state regulators for violating 19 environmental laws, including misrepresenting information and sending hazardous ash to a landfill not permitted to handle such waste.

Inspectors found that the plants handled, stored and shipped hazardous waste without permits, failed to keep numerous required records, and continued to spew putrid odors over neighborhoods three years after similar smells were noted by inspectors.

The 250 pages of documents from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources also detail how inspectors found a hole cut in a fence at one of the plants, allowing potentially contaminated waste to run into the storm sewer, a violation of the state’s water laws.

The violation notices issued last week are part of a series of regulatory actions being taken by state and federal authorities after a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation in February revealed environmental problems and dangerous working conditions at the plants here and at three others in Arkansas, Indiana and Tennessee.

The facilities are operated by Container Life Cycle Management, a joint venture majority owned by Ohio-based Greif Inc, an industrial packaging giant. The plants refurbish 55-gallon steel drums and large plastic chemical containers, cleaning them out for reuse or recycling.

The three Milwaukee-area plants operate as Mid-America Steel Drum.

In response to the DNR actions, Greif spokeswoman Debbie Crow said the company is cooperating with the agency and other regulators and "is already addressing several of the items noted by the DNR and will work with them on remediating other matters."

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She wrote in an email that the company's plants have been inspected by the DNR in the past but such violations were not noted, adding, "the items asserted by the DNR attempt to implement a new regulatory framework for the reconditioning industry that has not previously been imposed by federal or state authorities."

Crow did not elaborate further.

The DNR has scheduled enforcement conferences for the company to attend in Milwaukee in August. The agency said historically most violations are resolved at such meetings, but noted the law allows the matters to be referred to the state Department of Justice, which could seek court-ordered compliance and penalties up to $25,000 for each day of violation.

The agency noted that four other government agencies are investigating the plants — the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District.

“It is important to note that this is a multi-agency endeavor and our notice of violation actions are only a piece of the larger picture,” the DNR said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel. “Other agencies are looking at different elements that make up the total picture of activities."

Earlier this year, two EPA investigators became ill while interviewing residents around the St. Francis plant, reporting nausea, dizziness and difficulty breathing.

Concerned that the company engaged in a cover-up and that the plant’s true operations presented a risk to residents, federal prosecutors took the unusual step of asking a federal magistrate judge to approve search warrants authorizing surprise inspections to collect samples.

The judge approved them in early May, and the newly released DNR violation reports show the EPA was in the plants that month. The EPA has not released details of those surprise inspections.

Hazardous waste noted

State DNR officials allege the three Milwaukee-area plants have stored hazardous waste without a license. Investigators visited the plants five times in February and March and noted seven hazardous waste violations in their report.

The 55-gallon drums and totes are supposed to arrive at the plants empty, but they sometimes come in with a significant amount of chemicals remaining inside, including highly flammable and other hazardous liquids.

During one inspection, inspectors found more than 100 barrels on site at the Oak Creek plant, several that were labeled hazardous waste with strong smelling chemicals inside.

They randomly pulled drums and found several with significant amounts of chemicals inside, including one that was full, the report said.

Inspectors noted that when the drums headed for recycling were turned upside down, chemicals began running out within seconds.

Workers at the plants have said chemicals were mixed together, triggering dangerous reactions, and plumes of smoke from unknown chemicals have been released into neighborhoods, the Journal Sentinel investigation found.

The inspectors found the company failed to have the necessary license to store such hazardous materials on site.

The DNR also found that Mid-America Steel Drum violated hazardous waste transportation laws by shipping such waste without a permit. Large chemical totes are sent from the St. Francis plant to the company's Cornell St. plant on Milwaukee’s north side.

“Semi-trailers are known to transport non-empty drums and totes, some of which contain hazardous waste,” the DNR report said.

At the Oak Creek plant, hazardous wastes were sent through an incinerator, according to the DNR, and the resulting ash was disposed of at a Muskego landfill that is not licensed as a hazardous-waste facility.

The inspectors found the plants did not have proper paperwork listing when barrels that were too heavy arrived and when they were shipped out.

The inspections also showed the Oak Creek facility, "does not have an inspection program for malfunctions and deterioration, operator errors and discharges, which may be causing or may lead to release of hazardous waste constitutents to the environment or a threat to human health."

Air pollution violations

The agency issued eight violations of air pollution rules, saying it believes Mid-America misrepresented air pollution emissions at the St. Francis plant and that operations continue to cause significant odor issues in the surrounding neighborhood.

The company did not fully disclose its discharge amounts in its 2014 permit application and has not complied with information requests from the state since then, according to the DNR records.

For years, residents near the St. Francis plant have complained about foul odors and smoke from the plant. They’ve also reported health complaints including dizziness, itching, watery eyes, rashes on exposed skin, nausea, lymphoma, cardiovascular disease and throat cancer, according to court documents seeking the surprise EPA inspection earlier this year.

The DNR also cited the company for four wastewater violations at the three facilities.

At the Milwaukee facility, inspectors found that a hole was cut in the metal perimeter fence of the facility, six inches high and 15 inches wide. This allowed potentially contaminated waste to run into the nearby storm sewer,

There was no explanation from the company in the report about how the hole got there.

​Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Read the investigation

To read the Journal Sentinel's "Burned" investigation, into safety hazards at drum reconditioning plants, go to jsonline.com/burned.