The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Anchorage Tuesday announced a settlement for federal law violations regarding the handling, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes.
The EPA reports that JBER self-disclosed on October 19, 2019, 200,000 pounds of expended small-arms cartridge casings had been stockpiled and were determined to be toxic from lead contamination. It’s being reported that the base successfully recycled all of its brass casings till 2017 when recycling had been discontinued. The case’s settlement sets conditions for resuming the expended small-arms cartridge casings recycling program and earnings will finance other JBER recycling endeavors.
Ed Kowalski, Director of the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division said, “This settlement at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson holds the U.S. Air Force accountable, paves the way for the recycling program restart and protects public health and the environment.”
The EPA will allow JBER to recycle brass expended small-arms cartridge casings instead of disposing them in a permitted Resource Conservation and Recovery Act treatment, storage, and disposal facility. Under the settlement, JBER needs to decontaminate the building where the cartridges are stored, report to the EPA on its progress recycling the cartridge casings, and notify the EPA when the recycling is finished.
According to the EPA, the settlement also resolves the universal waste management violations identified during a base inspection on October 7-9, 2019. The Base paid a penalty of $61,554 as part of the settlement.