1997: 712 tons of soil contaminated with PCB's is disposed of at USA Waste's
West Plains, WA. dump. The landfill is designated as "limited purpose"
and was designed to hold tires, sterilized medical waste, construction
materials and soils contaminated with petroleum. The landfill is prohibited
from taking material contaminated with hazardous wastes such as PCB's.
1996: USA Waste agrees to a settlement with the federal governmentand state
agencies in Illinois concerning the filling of wetlands by Countryside
Landfill's previous owners. USA agrees to pay $3.6 million per year fourteen
years into the Illinois Wetlands Conservation Account; construct a 210 acre
wetland adjacent to the property; set aside $400,000 for the maintenance of
the constructed wetland and pay $10,000 the U.S. Dept. of Justice.
The settlement was reached because Army Corps of Engineers officials had
refusedto allow USA to fill other wetlands for expansion of the landfill
until the previous violations were settled.
1993: USA Waste faces stiff opposition in Gwinner, North Dakota concerning a
proposed landfill expansion. The primary issue is the presence of an estimated
4000 barrels of industrial waste dumped at the landfillover a number of years.
State health officials have refused to allow expansion of the landfill
without cleanup of the waste and have levied a fine of $80,000 against
USA Waste for failure to move the barrels despite a 1990 agreement.
State officials offered provisional expansion approval for the cleanup of the
industrial waste, however, USA Waste said, "the $1 million-plus cost o the
first phase is too risky without assurances from the state of approval for
future expansion." USA Waste is also in violation of state regulations
stemming from its disposal of three times the permitted amount of garbage
Western Waste
1996: Louisiana State Rep. Michael Russo pleads guilty to extortion for pressuring
Western Waste into buying property he owns in return for helping the company
to obtain a landfill permit. Russo is paid $150,000by Vern Hizel, manager of
Western Waste's operations in Louisiana. Hizel pleads guilty to one count of
failure to report a felony and receives probation in connection with the
payment to Russo
1995: Western Waste in Texarkana, Arkansas is ordered to pay a $205,000
penalty for poor operation of a solid waste site and to hold $799,000 in
escrow for future remediation
1989: Hacob (Jake) Shirvanian, Vice President and Manager of Western Waste is
fined $125,000 after pleading no contest to charges of mixing illegal
hazardous waste, (including heavy metals and dry cleaning wastes)with
household garbage. USA Waste is fined $100,000 for the incidents which
occurred between January of 1985-July 1986
1989: Western Waste agrees to pay $900,000 in fines after pleading no contest
to charges that it "engaged in a plot to eliminate competitionand
artificially inflate commercial trash hauling prices."
United Waste
1997: United Waste pays a $150,000 fine to the state of Mass. for environmental
violations at landfills in Barre, Westminster and Chicopee. The violations
included burying more trash than permitted, improperly using demolition
and construction material to cover trash, and using cover material that
contained asbestos.In addition, United Waste agrees to provide $250,000 in recycling and
disposal services for communities statewide.
Sunray
1996: Sunray Inc. continues its bid to build a 16 acre landfill on Hobbes Mtn.
near Fayetteville Arkansas. A permit for the operation was given to Sunray
by the Arkansas Dept. of Pollution Control and Ecology despite the fact that
the Arkansas Solid Waste Division had previously declared the site unsuitable.
The issue at stake concerns the geology of the area. The Hobbs Mtn.
Site is characterized by underground water pools and cracked limestone,
suggesting that any leachate from the landfill is in danger of contaminating
aquifers and nearby rivers.
The site is also unstable, being located near an earthquake fault line.
Despite these concerns and the question of whether Sunray's parent company
USA Waste should be prohibited from activity in Arkansas for violating the
state's "bad actor"law, the PC&E rules that citizens groups concerns were not
valid, having been raised after the legal period of public discussion.
Chambers
1994: Chambers pays $500,000 in fines to the SEC to settle charges that they
had altered financial records to make the company appear more profitable.
John Rangos, (Chambers chief exec. and member of USA's boardof directors),
and other officers sign a "cease and desist"order with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, promising never to do it again
Empire Sanitary Landfill
1997: Empire Sanitary Landfill, a waste service company in Pennsylvania and
subsidiary of USA Waste, pleads guilty to giving $129,000 in illegal campaign
contributions to 10 political candidates.
The company agrees to pay a record $8 million fine, the largest ever for a
campaign finance violation.
Empire is alleged to have illegally funneled the money by having employees
and business associates make donations and reimbursing them from company
accounts. During the time of the illegal contributions,
Empire was lobbying on a trash transportation bill pending in Congress.
In addition to the company's fine, four former officials of Empire,
a business associate and a Pa legislator face trial in a 140 count indictment
alleging that they made the contributions and attempted to cover them up when
prosecutors began an investigation
Grand Central Sanitary Landfill Inc.
998: Grand Central, a subsidiary of USA Waste signs a Consent Order and
Agreement with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection for
violations at its landfill facility. The company agrees to pay $1.52 million
for the violations.
