Norfolk shipyard to pay $19,600 for mishandling waste

NORFOLK

Metro Machine Corp., a large shipyard on the Elizabeth River, has agreed to pay the state a $19,600 fine for mishandling more than 500 pounds of hazardous waste.

In a letter to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Metro Machine explained that an employee was disciplined for forgetting where he stored the wastes, which later were thrown into a trash bin along with regular trash, trucked to a garbage facility in Chesapeake and began smoking there as if they were about to catch fire.

"He remembered the material being delivered to him but could not recall where he had placed it," Jeff Facenda, environmental, health and safety manager at Metro Machine, said in an incident report to state regulators.

The event took place March 11; the shipyard, its lawyer and state officials have been negotiating a settlement since then. Their proposed plan to end the enforcement action, including the fine, will take effect this week, officials said.

Most of the material in question was calcium carbide, which can explode when mixed with water, according to case records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

While none of the wastes were spilled or injured anyone, the state considered the incident "serious," records show, because of the high risk of so much volatile material being exposed on public highways and at the Waste Industries facility in Chesapeake, which is not licensed to accept such toxic substances.

Metro Machine could have been fined more, records show, but because the shipyard acted quickly, alerted state environmental officials immediately and hired a company to clean up the wastes, the state decided to impose the minimal penalty of $19,600.

The shipyard, located near the Norfolk-Portsmouth border and visible below the Berkley Bridge, was last in trouble with state regulators over its management of hazardous wastes in 1999. Back then, the yard was fined $7,499 for a raft of housekeeping violations.

The waste materials this time had been found in an old warehouse once belonging to Berkley Machine Works, a company that Metro acquired in 2008, according to case records. The owner of Berkley Machine picked up the wastes and put them in temporary storage nearby. Afterward, they were misplaced by the Metro employee and eventually wound up in the trash bin meant only for unregulated trash.

Metro paid IMS Environmental Services in Norfolk more than $14,000 to respond to the smoking trash container, safely bag the wastes and transport them to a specially licensed hazardous-waste facility in Lewisberry, Pa., records show.

About 450 pounds were calcium carbide. Another 75 pounds were described by state inspectors as "black gooey liquid," a slurry of paint-related wastes. A third container, weighing about 50 pounds, was later determined to be calcium hydroxide, a powdery substance, according to records.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com