At a facility in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, a manufacturer supplying the U.S. military and auto industry was found to have stored and mishandled hazardous waste (acid wastewater, spent solvents, caustic residues, and waste aerosol cans) for years without the required permits.
The EPA’s September 2025 consent order against Arcos Industries LLC details systemic violations of hazardous waste law that risked contaminating local soil and water, endangering workers, and undermining public confidence in environmental enforcement.
The penalty for this series of violations was $141,778.
A Pattern of Negligence
(Based entirely on findings from the attached down below EPA’s September 29, 2025 Consent Agreement and Final Order)
- Unpermitted Operations: Arcos ran a hazardous waste storage and treatment operation without a valid RCRA permit or exemption.
- Unlabeled Hazardous Waste: Containers holding kerosene and isopropyl alcohol waste were misclassified as “universal waste” or left unlabeled.
- Overdue Storage: Hazardous materials were stored on-site for longer than the legal 90-day limit.
- No Secondary Containment: The main wastewater tank lacked secondary containment to prevent spills.
- Missing Daily Inspections: The company failed to inspect hazardous waste tanks daily between 2020 and 2022, with gaps of up to 10 days per month.
- No Employee Training: No workers received required hazardous waste handling training between 2020 and 2024.
- No Engineering Review: Arcos failed to obtain the mandatory professional engineer assessment for its waste tanks until May 2025… three years after the EPA inspection.
- False or Incomplete Reporting: Biennial hazardous waste reports for 2019 and 2021 omitted multiple hazardous waste streams.
The Macro Consequences
The Economic Fallout
Mount Carmel sits in Pennsylvania’s industrial corridor, where small manufacturers are often major local employers. But facilities that mishandle waste risk expensive remediation and long-term site devaluation. Failure to maintain containment systems or conduct inspections often leads to groundwater contamination, driving up cleanup costs and threatening future investment in the region.
The Public Health Crisis
Arcos’s operations involved corrosive and toxic chemicals (classified under EPA waste codes D001, D002, D007, D035, and F005). Without secondary containment or inspections, these materials posed a credible risk of leaching into soil and water, exposing nearby communities and workers to caustic and solvent residues.
The Environmental Toll
By disposing of aerosol cans in regular trash and failing to test corn cob byproduct waste for hazardous properties, Arcos blurred the boundary between industrial byproduct and toxic pollutant. Each missed inspection and uncontained tank increased the risk of long-term contamination in an already fragile industrial ecosystem.
The Erosion of Trust
The EPA found that Arcos had been out of compliance since at least 2020. But the final resolution came only in 2025, resulting in a fine smaller than many executive bonuses. This outcome signals to other industrial operators that systemic regulatory neglect can be settled as a cost of doing business. And frequent visitors of my website will know that
Accountability Deferred
After years of violations, Arcos Industries paid $141,778… without admitting wrongdoing and without any criminal referral. The company only came into full compliance in 2025, three years after inspectors first documented the failures.
The case underscores a deeper systemic flaw: the U.S. hazardous waste enforcement system often monetizes negligence instead of deterring it. Civil penalties remain far cheaper than compliance, and settlements rarely force structural change.
In Mount Carmel, a company manufacturing for the military operated outside the law for years. And our failing regulatory system designed to protect the public quietly signed off.
If you are having trouble viewing the above PDF for whatever reason then you can also visit the EPA’s website by visiting this link to check it out: Arcos Industries LLC_RCRA CAFO_Sept 29 2025_Redacted.pdf
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