Boston, Mass. -- A Rhode Island company that conducts printing, coating and finishing of specialty fabrics has been ordered by EPA to come into compliance with federal hazardous waste management regulations.

Bradford Printing and Finishing, LLC of Westerly was ordered to comply with the regulations it had violated. According to EPA, Bradford violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) by failing to determine whether numerous wastes being stored at Bradford’s Westerly facility were hazardous wastes.

Bradford also failed to separate or protect containers holding hazardous wastes from containers holding incompatible materials, failed to provide adequate hazardous waste management training to its personnel, failed to maintain a hazardous waste contingency plan, and failed to properly manage and label its universal waste.

The company’s violation of RCRA requirements, and in particular their failure to determine if its wastes were hazardous, significantly increased the likelihood that hazardous wastes might be improperly managed and disposed of, and that the public and the environment could have been exposed to hazardous wastes.

More information:  Compliance & Enforcement of Environmental Laws in New England (http://www.epa.gov/region1/enforcementandassistance/index.html )