A federal judge in Oregon sentenced the two companies responsible for the operation of the J.H. Baxter wood treatment facility in Eugene, Oregon, and their president, for hazardous waste and Clean Air Act violations. Collectively, they were ordered to pay a total of $1.5 million in criminal fines. In addition, the court ordered the companies to serve five years of probation and the companies’ president, Georgia Baxter-Krause, of Deschutes, Oregon, to serve 90 days in prison and one year of supervised release.Both companies — J.H. Baxter & Co. Inc. and J.H. Baxter & Co., A California Limited Partnership (collectively J.H. Baxter) — previously pleaded guilty to charges of illegally treating hazardous waste and knowingly violating the Clean Air Act’s regulations for hazardous air pollutants. Georgia Baxter-Krause previously pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the federal statute governing hazardous waste management.
“The J.H. Baxter companies knowingly mishandled hazardous waste and repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act by venting hazardous substances directly into the air, right across the street from people’s homes. The company president then lied to cover up these crimes,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Jeffrey Hall for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s sentencing highlights the significant penalties that Congress has provided for illegally treating or disposing of hazardous waste as well as the Agency’s continued efforts to ensure that Americans have clean air, land, and water.”
“On more than 100 different days, J.H. Baxter knowingly and illegally boiled off hazardous waste, emitting the discharge into the air,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “J.H. Baxter’s President, Georgia Baxter-Krause, then made false statements about the unlawful practice. Protecting the public’s health is among our highest priorities, and we will prosecute those who violate environmental laws.”
“The defendant companies boiled hazardous waste into our community’s air instead of properly dealing with it and Georgia Baxter-Krause lied when confronted about it,” said Nathan J. Lichvarcik, Chief of the Eugene and Medford Branches of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners to investigate and prosecute those who put Oregonians at risk in violation of federal law.”
According to court documents, J.H. Baxter used hazardous chemicals to treat and preserve wood at its Eugene facility. The wastewater from the wood preserving processes was hazardous waste.
To properly treat wastewater from its wood treatment process, J.H. Baxter operated a legal wastewater treatment unit to treat and evaporate the waste. For years, however, when J.H. Baxter had too much water on site, including process wastewater and precipitation, J.H. Baxter’s employees at the facility would transfer hazardous process wastewater to an available wood treatment retort to “boil it off,” greatly reducing its volume. J.H. Baxter would then remove the remaining waste from the retort, label it as hazardous waste and ship it offsite for disposal.
J.H. Baxter did not have a permit to treat its hazardous waste in this manner, as required by RCRA. Additionally, J.H. Baxter’s facility was subject to certain Clean Air Act emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants, which required it to minimize air pollution emissions. However, during the illegal treatment, employees were directed to open all vents on the retorts, allowing discharge to the surrounding air.
After Oregon inspectors discovered this activity, they requested information about the companies’ practice of boiling off hazardous wastewater. On two separate occasions, Georgia Baxter-Krause gave false information in response, which included information about the dates the practice took place, and which retorts were used.
The investigation determined that Georgia Baxter-Krause knew J.H. Baxter maintained detailed daily production logs for each retort. From approximately January to October 2019, J.H. Baxter boiled off hazardous process wastewater in its wood treatment retorts on 136 known days. Georgia Baxter-Krause was also aware that during this time J.H. Baxter used four of its five retorts to boil off wastewater.
This case was investigated by the EPA Criminal Investigation Division with assistance from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, EPA’s Pacific Northwest (Region 10) office, and the Oregon State Police.
This case was an Environmental Crimes Task Force (ECTF) investigation. ECTF is an initiative in the District of Oregon that identifies, investigates and prosecutes significant environmental, public lands and wildlife crimes. ECTF leverages the resources and effort of federal, state and local regulatory agencies and law enforcement to protect human health, safeguard natural resources and wildlife and hold violators accountable.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified automotive gasoline as a Group 1 carcinogen and therefore carcinogenic to humans. Automotive gasoline is a commercial product and complex mixture primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines that causes bladder cancer and acute myeloid leukemia in adults, IARC’s news release explains. The organization made this determination based on what it considers to be sufficient evidence for cancer in humans and experimental animals, as well as strong mechanistic evidence in humans. In addition, there is limited evidence that automotive gasoline causes other cancers, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and stomach and kidney cancers in adults, IARC found.IARC also evaluated the carcinogenicity of five gasoline additives, volatile compounds that are added to gasoline mixtures to increase combustion efficiency. Methyl tert-butyl ether and ethyl tert-butyl ether were both classified as Group 2B substances, or possibly carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence of cancer in experimental animals. The additives tert-butyl alcohol, diisopropyl ether, and tert-amyl methyl ether could not be classified as to their carcinogenicity in humans. Evidence that all five additives caused cancer in humans was deemed inadequate by IARC.
According to a Q&A document provided by IARC (PDF), automotive gasoline was previously evaluated by the organization in 1988 and classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans. It was reevaluated based on the publication of new evidence provided by several studies on cancer in humans and experimental animals, as well as the publication of scientific literature on mechanistic data. The same document clarifies that workers and members of the general population are mainly exposed to automotive gasoline and additives via gasoline vapors. However, as a research organization, IARC does not provide health and safety recommendations.
Aghorn Operating, Inc., an oilfield company, Trent Day, an executive of Aghorn, and Kodiak Roustabout Inc., entered guilty pleas and were sentenced yesterday in relation to criminal worker safety and federal clean air and safe drinking water violations. According to court documents, Aghorn owns and operates oil wells in and near Odessa, Texas. Odessa is in the Permian basin where oil reserves are “sour,” meaning they have high hydrogen sulfide content. Hydrogen sulfide gas can be deadly at high concentrations.The case leading to these pleas is the result of an investigation of the Oct. 26, 2019, death of Aghorn employee Jacob Dean and his wife Natalee Dean. Both were overcome by hydrogen sulfide at an Aghorn facility in Odessa.
Day agreed to plead guilty to a Clean Air Act (CAA) negligent endangerment charge and serve five months in prison. Aghorn pleaded guilty to CAA negligent endangerment and an Occupational Safety and Health Act willful violation count for the death of Jacob Dean. Kodiak pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act for falsifying oil well integrity tests. Aghorn will pay a $1 million criminal fine and Kodiak will pay a $400,000 criminal fine. These pleas were made under agreements the defendants entered into with the United States. Under the agreements, other pending charges will be dismissed. Yesterday, the court accepted the defendants’ guilty pleas and sentenced them in accordance with their plea agreements.
“Through these guilty pleas, the defendants accept responsibility for allowing hazards that should have been prevented,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “If they had done what the law requires, Jacob and Natalee might still be with us today. The Justice Department can’t stand by when employers put workers at such risk.”
“Energy production is vital, but it must be done competently and lawfully,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Jeffrey Hall of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Operators who gravely endanger and kill others and those who lie to the government will be held accountable for their criminal conduct. EPA’s criminal investigation of these tragic deaths led to today’s plea deal.”
According to a factual statement accepted by Day and Aghorn, Jacob Dean responded to a call to check a pump at an Aghorn facility. There, he encountered deadly hydrogen sulfide gas, was overcome, and died. His wife, Natalee Dean, knew where Jacob had gone and started calling him when he did not return in a timely manner. When those calls went unanswered, Natalee drove to the facility. When Natalee arrived at the facility, she was also overcome while looking for Jacob and died.
Trent Day admitted that he should have controlled hydrogen sulfide emissions as part of his duties and that because he did not, he placed others in imminent danger of death. Aghorn admitted the same criminal negligence and to a separate charge that it willfully violated the Occupational Safety and Health Act regulations requiring companies to implement respiratory protection programs to address hazards like those at the facility. In addition to paying a $1 million fine, the company will maintain a set of improvements it made after the tragedy during its period of probation.
The investigation also uncovered false statements by Kodiak about injection well testing related to Aghorn’s oil operations. The mechanical integrity of an injection well must be evaluated by conducting pressure tests. These tests are part of programs under the Safe Drinking Water Act to prevent leaks from those wells. Such leaks could, under some circumstances, contaminate groundwater. In its plea agreement, Kodiak admitted that it sent forms and charts to the Texas Railroad Commission, claiming they were tests for specific wells when Kodiak knew they were not actual records of tests of those wells. Kodiak, in addition to its $400,000 fine, will guarantee that at least 33 tests conducted for Aghorn wells during its year of probation are witnessed or conducted by a third party.
The EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. The Justice Department and EPA would like to thank the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Railroad Commission, Ector County Environmental, and the Odessa Fire Department for their support of the investigation.
Senior Trial Attorney Christopher Costantini, Trial Attorney Mark Romley, and Assistant Section Chief Thomas T. Ballantine of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section are prosecuting the case.
MSHA will pause enforcement of its final rule on respirable crystalline silica for coal mine operators until Aug. 18, 2025, four months from the original compliance date, the agency announced in a recent notice to stakeholders. MSHA says the pause has to do with this month’s “unforeseen NIOSH restructuring,” among other reasons. Planned cuts to NIOSH set to take effect on June 1 will eliminate nearly all NIOSH programs and divisions and will reduce the agency’s workforce from approximately 1,400 full- and part-time employees to fewer than 150. MSHA’s “temporary enforcement pause” affects the requirements for coal mine operators set forth in 30 CFR part 60, which describes mandatory health standards for mines related to respirable crystalline silica.“The silica rule requires mine operators to update their respiratory protection programs and may result in operators obtaining additional respirators and sampling devices,” MSHA’s notice states. “MSHA understands that recent [NIOSH] restructuring may impact the Pittsburgh Mining Research Division, the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, and the supply of approved and certified respirators and personal dust monitors.”
The pause is intended to allow time for coal mine operators to secure equipment and come into compliance, MSHA says. During this time, the agency plans to help accredited laboratories gain proficiency in MSHA analytical methods and provide other compliance assistance to the mining industry. According to MSHA, the pause does not affect the compliance date for metal and nonmetal mines, which is April 8, 2026.
MSHA’s silica rule lowered its permissible exposure limit for respirable crystalline silica to 50 µg/m3 as an eight-hour time-weighted average. As explained in an MSHA FAQ, the previous respirable crystalline silica PEL was 100 µg/m3 “reported as an equivalent full-shift TWA concentration as measured by the Mining Research Establishment (MRE) instrument.” This method of determining exposures provided no adjustment for extended work shifts. Under MSHA’s new silica rule, mine operators must use respirable particle size-selective samplers that meet the requirements of ISO 7708:1995, Air Quality—Particle Size Fraction Definitions for Health-Related Sampling. “The full-shift, 8-hour TWA calculation provides greater protection for coal miners,” the FAQ states.
For more information, see MSHA’s notice to stakeholders.
The EPA is announcing settlements with organicgirl, LLC and nine other entities with facilities across California for claims of chemical safety-related violations under the Clean Air Act. All entities agreed to come into compliance with Risk Management Program (RMP) safety requirements and pay penalties, which total over $170,000.“Reducing risks from accidental releases of toxic substances is a core responsibility for EPA,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Josh F.W. Cook. “As a result of our actions, workers, first responders, and communities throughout California will be made safer from chemical accidents.”
At organicgirl, in Salinas, which processes, stores, and distributes prepackaged salads, fresh-cut vegetables, and other food products, EPA found significant safety issues during an inspection in January 2024. The issues pertained to the facility’s anhydrous ammonia refrigeration system.
EPA claims that the company violated the Clean Air Act’s Section 112(r) because it failed to promptly address critical safety recommendations and implement work safe practices; had an insufficient operation and maintenance program for the refrigeration system, resulting in safety issues such as corrosion of the equipment and deficient emergency ventilation system; and had inadequate documentation to prove that the facility’s system was designed to prevent releases of anhydrous ammonia, among other issues. organicgirl agreed to pay a penalty of $151,979 and come into compliance with federal law by addressing the remaining deficiencies.
Anhydrous ammonia is a substance regulated under the Clean Air Act’s Section 112(r) as it, while an effective refrigerant, can cause serious, often irreversible health effects when released. In addition to causing potential impacts from inhalation or skin contact, this chemical is also highly flammable.
In addition to the organicgirl case, EPA also completed several expedited settlement agreements to resolve the following claims of violations of Clean Air Act chemical safety requirements:
AMVAC Chemical Corporation, located in Los Angeles, failed to maintain accurate chlorine equipment diagrams, sufficiently evaluate hazards associated with its chlorine process, and inspect chlorine equipment in accordance with industry standards. The company agreed to pay a penalty of $8,000 and came into compliance to resolve the claims.
Fowler Packing Company, located in Fresno, failed to submit its Risk Management Plan report in a timely manner and agreed to pay a penalty of $2,000 to resolve the claim.
Benicia Water Treatment Plant, located in Benicia, failed to submit its Risk Management Plan report in a timely manner and update emergency contact information in a timely manner. The plant agreed to come into compliance and pay a penalty of $1,800 to resolve the claims.
Material Logistics & Services LLC, located in Carson, failed to submit its Risk Management Plan report in a timely manner and agreed to pay a penalty of $1,600 to resolve the claim.
Both Cal Marine Fish Company LLC, located in San Pedro, and Southern California Ice Company, located in Torrance, failed to submit their Risk Management Plan report in a timely manner and each agreed to pay a penalty of $1,200 to resolve the claim.
Matheson Tri-Gas, located in Newark, failed to keep operating procedures readily accessible to employees who work in or maintain a process; failed to properly determine, correct, complete, and document actions and/or responses to the findings of a 2018 compliance audit. The company agreed to pay a penalty of $900 to resolve the claims.
Both Cement Hill Water Treatment Plant, located in Fairfield, and PR Farms, located in Madera, failed to submit their Risk Management Plan report and each agreed to pay a penalty of $800 to resolve the claim.
The U.S. Department of Labor will honor workers whose jobs have claimed their lives during its national Workers Memorial Day program.The department will welcome families traveling from across the country to the nation's capital for the program, which pays tribute to men and women who have lost their lives while on the job, as well as all the fallen workers before them, and the survivors who remain to grieve and carry on.
Today, work-related injuries in the U.S. claim about 15 people's lives a day. In 2023, a reported 5,283 workers suffered fatal inquiries, a decrease of 203 worker deaths from 2022.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Occupational Safety and Health Administration Acting Assistant Secretary Amanda Wood Laihow, and Mine Safety and Health Administration Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy James Paul McHugh spoke during this year's Workers Memorial Day ceremony.
Workers Memorial Day is observed on April 28 with local observances across the country that bring together workers, families, and unions in a shared commitment to preventing workplace hazards so that every worker can return home safely at the end of the day.
April 28 also marks a significant milestone in workplace safety – the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration – which opened its doors in 1971 following the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
Every worker has the right to a safe and healthy workplace. Ensuring workers' well-being is a shared responsibility that demands ongoing collaboration among employers, labor unions, safety professionals, and workers. Reinforcing workplace protections and promoting a strong safety culture helps prevent tragedies and builds a future where every job is a safe, family-sustaining one.
The EPA announced a settlement for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act with Phoenix Global, a company in Burns Harbor, Indiana, that processes slag from a steel mill. The company paid $190,860 in penalties.Slag is a waste product created during the steel smelting process. Slag contains hazardous metals like manganese, chromium, lead, nickel, aluminum and arsenic, which are easily released into the air as dust during processing. EPA alleges that Phoenix Global violated opacity regulations and violated its permit. In addition to the monetary penalty, the company will install equipment to reduce dust emissions from its processing plant equipment, slag pits and material storage piles.
This plant sits on the southernmost shores of Lake Michigan just west of the Indiana Dunes National Park. The settlement will reduce hazardous pollutants emissions and improve air quality in the national park and nearby communities of northwest Indiana.
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