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The Indiana Department of Environmental Management today used the state's 'Good Character' law for the first time, to block expansion of a hazardous waste landfill in Fort Wayne.

IDEM Commissioner Michael O'Connor denied the application of Chemical Waste Management, LLC that sought to increase the capacity of the Adams Center Hazardous Waste Abatement and Disposal Facility. O'Connor found the company has a continuing business relationship with Chemical Waste Management Inc., a Delaware corporation with a history of environmental violations.

"Indiana's Good Character law allows IDEM to effectively deny a permit application if the applicant has not demonstrated good environmental stewardship," O'Connor said. "With Chem Waste's poor environmental track, I could not approve their expansion request."

Among those violations in the five years preceding the application are.

• Chem Waste entered guilty pleas to six criminal violations, which were felonies, of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) and paid more than $3 million in penalties. The convictions stemmed from Chem Waste's failure to notify the United States when reportable quantities of hazardous substances were released into the environment during a government contract cleanup at Lackawanna Refuse Superfund Site at the border of Old Forge and Ransom Township, PA. Chem Waste employees crushed drums containing toxins. An accompanying civil settlement that required Chem Waste, other major corporations and individuals to pay $28 million to the U.S. and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to reimburse costs incurred from the release of hazardous substances. Cause No. 3-CR-22-253. Aug. 9, 1992.

• Alabama DEM, Cause No, 92-156-11W - Waste manifested as a non-regulated hazardous waste, but newly subject to regulation, was land disposed. $25,000 penalty. 7-4-92

• People of the State of California, Cause No.723347-- Tank developed leak and resulted in spill of hazardous waste. $25,000 penalty. 7-29-92

• California Environmental Protection Agency Department of Toxic Substances Control, Cause No. HWCA 92/93 -022 - Various operational violations were alleged, such as insufficient water flowing to the eye wash, failing to maintain adequate documentation of quantities accumulated for recovery and failing to mark accumulation dates on 19 containers. $65,000 penalty. 11-3-92

• USEPA Region VI. Cause No. RCRA VI-304-H EPA challenged analysis methods for incinerator ash at the Port Arthur, Texas incinerator. $15,000 penalty. 4-8-94

• USEPA Region V Cause No. TSCA-V-C-30-93 - Violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act were revealed by Chem Waste and remediated. $17,350 penalty. 8-1-94

• Alabama DEM, Cause No. 94-084-CHW The subject of the enforcement action was the Emelle, Ala., landfill, and involved the disposal of PCB wastes. $35,000 penalty. 6-24-94

• USEPA Region VI, RCRA-VI-94-1618 - The complaint concerned a Clean Water Act NPDES sampling violation. $65,000 penalty. 9-26-94

• Illinois EPA v. CWM, Inc., Cause No. 91-CH-529 - Operational problems alleged at the incinerator in Illinois. $1.9 million penalty. 6-1-95

• Illinois EPA V. CWM, Inc., Cause No. 91-CH-529 and 93-CH-264 - New consent decree entered concerning Illinois incinerator. $250,000 penalty.

• State of Illinois V. CWM, Inc., Cause No. 83-CH-2266 - Newly regulated waste was mischaracterized as nonhazardous and put in the Illinois landfill. $25,000 penalty. 2-14-94

• US EPA Region V, Cause No. V-W-R-8 - Violations at the Trade Waste Incinerator in Sauget, Illinois. $275,000 penalty 12-31-92

• Louisiana DEQ, Cause No. HE-P-90-05-88 through HE-C-90-02-72 - Compliance orders involved tanks to treat and stabilize waste, the proper definition of closed containers, the proper definition of storage and the interpretation of the regulations regarding container management. $25,000 penalty. 7-7-93

• Louisiana DEQ V. CWM' Inc., Administrative Cause Nos. HE-C-88-210 and HE-P-88-559 and Cause No. 93-C-2095 - Judicial finding of violations at a Lake Charles treatment, storage and disposal facility. $261,918 penalty. 11-30-93

Chemical Waste Management of Indiana represented in its application that as of December, 1995 it no longer was associated with its former parent company, Chem Waste. However, the IDEM commissioner learned that a subsidiary of Chem Waste, an Indiana corporation called TC, Inc. owns land adjacent to the Facility and provides clay necessary for the daily operations of the Adams Center landfill. TC, Inc. and Chemical Waste Management of Indiana share many of the same corporate officers. Other facts led the commissioner to conclude a continuing business relationship, such as the check for the $34,000 application fee being drawn on the account of Chemical Waste Management of Indiana, Inc., a corporate entity that allegedly went out of existence prior to the application.

The "Good Character" law was enacted in 1990 and withstood a constitutional challenge by Chem Waste before the Indiana Supreme Court in 1994.