CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – Crystal Clean LLC of Elgin, Illinois, will pay $400,000 for new energy-efficient lighting at several schools in Gary, Indiana, to resolve allegations of violating rules regarding the handling of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced.
Crystal Clean also will pay a $100,000 fine. The new lights replace old light fixtures that may have contained PCBs.
PCBs – man-made organic chemicals used in paints, industrial equipment, plastics and cooling oil for electrical transformers – can cause cancer in animals and are suspected to be carcinogens for humans. The EPA banned the substance in 1978 but, prior to that, more than 1.5 billion pounds of the substance were manufactured in the United States.
The EPA pursued this case under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Crystal Clean’s $400,000 project will be regarded as a Supplemental Environmental Project under the consent agreement settling the case.