Court orders record fines in 1993 explosions that injured 13
A Superior Court judge ordered H.C. Starck, Inc., of Newton, Massachusetts, to pay $1.375 million in fines and penalties after pleading guilty to criminal charges in connection with two explosions at its plant in 1993, reports the Massachusetts Environmental Strike Force. The Strike Force is an interagency environmental law enforcement body overseen by the state`s attorney general and environmental affairs secretary. The judgment, reportedly the largest in state history for an environmental crime (the previous high was $500,000), was part of a disposition reached with the Strike Force.
Starck was indicted by a county grand jury on four counts of illegal treatment of hazardous waste. The convictions resulted from a two-year Strike Force investigation that found serious environmental neglect at the Starck plant, resulting in the two explosions at the Newton site on October 15, 1993. Two Starck employees were injured in the first explosion. The second explosion and a fireball occurred after firefighters arrived at the scene. Eleven Newton firefighters were seriously injured. Not one has returned to work since the explosion, and one firefighter suffered burns over 95 percent of his body and was in and out of a coma for almost a year.
The company pled guilty to charges alleging that over a three-year period prior to the 1993 explosions, Starck illegally burned sodium waste–generated as a result of manufacturing tantalum, a rare metal used in high-technology components such as jet engines and nuclear reactors–in a manner that could endanger human health, safety, welfare, and the environment. Starck also pled guilty to treating sodium waste without a license and in a manner inconsistent with Department of Environmental Protection regulations. The sodium, an ignitable waste that reacts violently with water, was burned in barrels in the same room used to wet-wash equipment. Evidence showed the room was always damp and exposed to a trough that at times contained standing wastewater.
The explosion occurred when about 100 pounds of sodium were burned in a barrel. The sodium melted, spilled out of the barrel, and reacted with water in the room, causing a fire and the first explosion, which blew out part of a door, threw back two Starck employees, and burned one on the scalp. The second explosion occurred while firefighters were attempting to extinguish the fire with an agent provided by Starck.
The Strike Force investigation revealed the procedure used to treat and dispose of the sodium waste originally was intended for very small amounts of sodium residue and that Starck did not instruct any of the workers burning the sodium of the limit on the amount that could be safely and legally burned. Instead, during the three-year period covered by the indictments, the investigation showed that Starck burned virtually all sodium waste generated at the plant, avoiding the cost of legal disposal.
In addition to paying the fines, Starck was ordered to conduct comprehensive environmental and occupational safety audits to ensure its operations are in full compliance with state and federal laws. The company also must design and implement training courses to be made available to other manufacturers so that conditions leading to the October 1993 Starck explosions can be prevented.
More information is available from John Lamontagne, Attorney General`s Office, at (617) 727-2543.
