Action Manufacturing Co. was sentenced Wednesday to five years of probation, as well as a $1.2 million fine, for storing explosive hazardous waste illegally at its Atglen, Pa., facility. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District Court Judge Nitza I. Quinones Alejandro also ordered an $800 special assessment.
Bristol, Pa.-based Action Manufacturing, which makes timing and arming devices for munitions and explosives, reportedly admitted to stockpiling explosive hazardous waste without a permit, instead of sending it to an approved treatment, storage and disposal facility.
The law requires companies like Action Manufacturing, which produce explosive solid waste, dispose of the hazardous material in accordance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Civil inspectors from the Environmental Protection Agency’s land and chemicals division and the state Department of Environmental Protection inspected the Atglen site in November 2011, finding illegally stored waste, “including scrap parts and components that were years or even decades overdue for disposal,” a press release said.
According to the press release, Action Manufacturing also admitted to violating Department of Transportation record-keeping regulations for transporting explosive material on the public roads.
The company has already brought in a new president and CEO to replace Arthur Mattia, Patty Hartman, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, confirmed.
Action Manufacturing is said to be complying with a schedule for disposing the backlog of waste built up throughout the years.
Read on the Philadelphia Business Journal →
The 1.2 million should be split evenly among the property owners who were put at risk by this criminal activity, but even though it was their lives and their children’s lives at risk they won’t see a dime of compensation.
Did this used to be Amcom years ago??
Debbie, it is still Amcom. Thats just the acronym for Action Manufacturing Company. AMcom
Thanks. Did I say I worked there for a week one time in my early 20’s? I was packing gunpowder into caps for hand grenades and it got stuck and sparked and flames shot out the hole where you put your hands and blew me across the room. Freakiest thing that ever happened to me! LOL Needless to say i quit.