Tnemec fined $20K by the EPA for illegally operating a hazardous waste site

In North Kansas City, Missouri, a paint and coating manufacturer operated as a de facto unpermitted hazardous waste storage facility, systematically failing to follow basic federal laws designed to protect workers and the environment. An inspection by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on October 29, 2024, uncovered a facility mishandling dangerous chemicals, leaving containers of hazardous solvents open, unlabeled, and in one case, uncontained entirely.

A Pattern of Negligence

The Consent Agreement between the EPA and Tnemec Company, Inc. details a series of critical failures that dismantled the regulatory guardrails intended to prevent a chemical disaster. Their actions created a worksite where the risks of hazardous materials were neither properly identified nor managed.

• Failure to Identify Hazardous Waste: The company failed to perform legally required hazardous waste determinations for multiple streams of waste, including paint splatters on the factory floor. If a company doesn’t identify what’s dangerous, it cannot possibly handle it safely.
• Leaving Hazardous Materials Open: Inspectors found numerous containers of hazardous waste left open, including solvents and paint additives. Open containers of hazardous solvents release toxic fumes, posing a direct inhalation risk to employees and increasing the danger of spills.
• Failure to Label Hazardous Waste: Multiple containers holding hazardous waste—including 55-gallon drums—were not marked with the words “Hazardous Waste” or other identifiers. This creates a severe risk for workers and emergency responders, who would have no way of knowing the chemical dangers they are facing in the event of a fire or spill.
• Lapse in Safety Training: At the time of the inspection, at least one employee involved in hazardous waste management had not completed the required annual refresher training. This points to a systemic disregard for maintaining essential safety protocols.
• Storing Uncontained Hazardous Waste: In one area, inspectors found the company failed to containerize hazardous solvent unit cleanout waste altogether. This practice invites environmental contamination, allowing dangerous chemicals to potentially seep into the ground and threaten local water sources.

A System of Risk

The document does not detail a specific spill or public health disaster, but it outlines a system where such an event was dangerously plausible. The consequences here are embedded in the risks the company created and the regulatory system that failed to prevent them.

The Public Health Crisis in Waiting

By leaving containers of hazardous solvents and paints open, unlabeled, and improperly stored, the company created an environment of immediate risk for its own workforce. The chemicals listed, such as those with D001 (ignitability), D018 (Benzene), and D035 (Methyl ethyl ketone) hazardous waste codes, are associated with serious health effects. The lack of labels and training meant that the very people handling these materials may not have been aware of the dangers, turning their workplace into a potential public health liability.

The Environmental Toll of Deregulation

A “Large Quantity Generator” of hazardous waste operating without the required permits or safety protocols is an environmental threat. The failure to properly contain hazardous solvent waste means a single accident could have led to contamination of the soil and groundwater in North Kansas City. This is the core purpose of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA): to prevent the land from becoming a dumping ground for industrial negligence. Tnemec’s actions bypassed the entire framework.

The Erosion of Trust Through Transactional Justice

The official response to these systemic failures was not a reckoning, but a transaction. The company agreed to pay a civil penalty of $20,000. Critically, the settlement allows Tnemec to “neither admit nor deny the specific factual allegations”. This legal maneuver allows the polluting company to resolve federal violations without ever taking public responsibility for the dangerous environment it created.

Accountability Denied

For systematically failing to manage hazardous waste and operating as an unpermitted storage facility, Tnemec Company, Inc. cut a check for $20,000. This penalty is a fraction of the maximum civil penalties authorized by law, which can exceed $100,000 for each violation.

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This result here is a portrait of regulatory capture, where accountability is neither demanded nor given. The company is not required to admit it endangered anyone or anything. It simply pays a fee…. a teeny negligible cost of doing business! And then certifies it is now in compliance.

This case is a symptom of a larger systemic failure taking place today: a legal framework where corporations can buy their way out of culpability, leaving the public to trust that the same broken system that allowed the negligence to occur will somehow prevent it from happening again.

Meaningful accountability would require an admission of the facts and a transparent, independently verified overhaul of safety culture. Instead, the system settled for a signature on a check.

source: https://yosemite.epa.gov/OA/RHC/EPAAdmin.nsf/Filings/314CA9791ED36B4085258D0F006F34C4/$File/Tnemec%20Consent%20Agreement%20and%20Final%20Order.pdf