Tenth Annual EI RCRA Compliance Award Winners Announced

49 Commercial Hazardous Waste Facilities Qualify

Contact: Kay Schoenecker Contact: 952/831-2473 ext. 13
Cary Perket: 858/488-4760

April 19, 2001 – For Immediate Release

Minneapolis, MN – Coinciding with Earth Day, Environmental Information Limited, an environmental business research firm released today the names of 49 commercial hazardous waste facilities that qualified for the EI RCRA Compliance Award. Each year, the compliance award recognizes commercial facilities that have done an outstanding job in protecting the earth’s environment by operating with no regulatory violations.

Achieving an entire year without a violation requires close adherence to complex regulations established by individual states working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The fact that only 49 of the approximately 460 facilities eligible for the award have qualified is an indication of how difficult it is to operate in complete compliance with these regulations.

"For a facility to qualify for this award requires a conscientious team effort by every person at the commercial hazardous waste facility to maintain operations in compliance. This is very difficult to achieve, because it requires adherence to complex rules "says EI President Cary Perket. "A very minor one-time error will cause facilities with otherwise outstanding safety and environmental protection to be disqualified."

The EI RCRA Compliance Award was started in 1991 to give positive recognition to the efforts of men and women at individual facilities that manage North America’s hazardous waste. To be eligible, the facility must be permitted in either Canada or the United States to commercially manage hazardous waste. No facility has managed to qualify for the award every year, another indication of how difficult it is to achieve compliance.

Environmental Information Limited, North America’s leading hazardous waste marketplace research service started the award to provide positive recognition to the services performed by the commercial hazardous waste management sector. Facilities receiving the award must submit a certification from their provincial or state regulatory agency that there have been no compliance violations. Further information about the compliance award can be found on the EI Hazardous Waste Facility Watch website (www.envirobiz.com/audit/index.htm.) on Envirobiz.com. or by contacting the names above.

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2000 Compliance Award Winners

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