Current News

Electronic manifesting for hazardous waste shipments began June 30, 2018.

Access the latest information on the EPA's E-Manifesting Portal.

Katt Training & Consluting can help your company transition to the new system. Please contact us for more information.

[The EPA's E-Manifesting Portal]

[EPA News Release]

Millions of U.S. workers are exposed to heat in their workplaces. Although illness from exposure to heat is preventable, every year, thousands become sick from occupational heat exposure, and some cases are fatal. Most outdoor fatalities, 50% to 70%, occur in the first few days of working in warm or hot environments because the body needs to build a tolerance to the heat gradually over time. The process of building tolerance is called heat acclimatization. Lack of acclimatization represents a major risk factor for fatal outcomes. [ more ]

A young construction worker was fatally crushed as he stood between two trucks in East Flatbush, Brooklyn Friday — when one of the vehicles backed into him, police said.

Saqueo Mejia, 24, of Sunset Park, was crushed just after noon on Troy Avenue when a large dump truck driven backed up, pinning him from the chest up against the second truck. [ more ]

PHILADELPHIA (Nov. 19, 2020) – Koppers Inc. has agreed to settle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the state of West Virginia and the state of Pennsylvania to resolve alleged violations of federal and state environmental laws at its facilities in Follansbee and Green Spring, West Virginia, and Clairton, Pennsylvania, EPA announced today.

A complaint filed with the settlement agreement cited violations of the Clean Water Act's Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) and Facility Response Plan (FRP) requirements. The SPCC rules help facilities prevent a discharge of oil into navigable waters or adjoining shorelines. The FRP rules require certain facilities to submit a response plan and prepare to respond to a worst-case oil discharge or threat of a discharge. Koppers is a Pittsburgh-based company involved in carbon materials and chemicals, railroad products and services, and performance chemicals. [ more ]

As part of OSHA's recent National Safety Stand-down to Prevent Falls in Construction, training materials including webinars and toolbox talks and posters to promote awareness were developed in English and Spanish. These materials are free for anyone to use.

To view or download the fall prevention resources OSHA provides, follow the link below.

[National Safety Stand-down to Prevent Falls in Construction Resources Website]

DAWSONVILLE, GA – If federal workplace safety requirements had been followed, a North Georgia site grading and pipeline contractor could have prevented the death of a 24-year-old worker who was killed in May after a fork attachment used on a front-end loader dislodged and struck the worker.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that when the incident occurred at the Dawsonville work site, the worker held a stake as heavy equipment drove the stake into the ground to install a stanchion for GPS equipment. The worker was transported to a local hospital, and died of his injuries.

OSHA cited Mathis Grading Inc. in Cumming for failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards and not notifying OSHA of a work-related fatality within the 8-hour required reporting period. The company faces $20,480 in proposed penalties. [ more ]

SEATTLE (January 6, 2022) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that Gardner-Gibson, Inc. has paid a $650,000 penalty to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act related to the release of 60,000 gallons of hot, liquid asphalt from its Gardner-Fields, Inc. facility in Tacoma.

On February 8, 2015, employees at the asphalt shingles and coating materials facility were transferring hot asphalt from rail cars to a storage tank when a connector separated from the tank. Hot asphalt escaped the facility's secondary containment through an open valve and flowed into the Lincoln Avenue Ditch, which flows into the Blair Waterway in Commencement Bay.

The asphalt spill stopped about 800 feet from Blair Waterway. Four ducks were contaminated with the asphalt and were captured, cleaned, and released.

EPA cited the company for the release of petroleum products and for significant violations of the Clean Water Act's Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures requirements discovered during follow-up inspections at the facility. [ more ]

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered a California business aviation provider to pay $958,000 in back wages and associated costs, and correct misinformation about a former employee who the employer retaliated against after they reported flight safety issues.

Investigators with the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that – after a former employee of Pegasus Elite Aviation Inc. in Calabasas reported safety issues that led to an onsite inspection – the company sent a falsified and negative Pilot Records Improvement Act report to the worker's new employer, violating the whistleblower provision. The report led to the employee's termination. [ more ]

BOSTON (March 3, 2022) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its 2020 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) National Analysis, which shows that companies that manage chemicals continue to make progress in preventing pollution and reducing chemical releases into the environment. The report shows continued reductions in toxic chemical releases in the New England Region and that between 2019 and 2020 total releases of TRI chemicals nationwide decreased by 10 percent.

"By collecting and publishing the Toxics Release Inventory data every year, EPA works to better protect communities and promote transparency, and gives communities information that better empowers them," said EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash. "EPA is encouraged by the continued decrease in releases of toxic chemicals in New England. We still have work to do to ensure this trend continues, especially in those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution." [ more ]

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is proposing amendments to its occupational injury and illness recordkeeping regulation, 29 CFR 1904.41. The current regulation requires certain employers to electronically submit injury and illness information – that they are required to keep – to OSHA. The agency uses these reports to identify and respond to emerging hazards and makes aspects of the information publicly available.

In addition to reporting their Annual Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, the proposed rule would require certain establishments in certain high-hazards industries to electronically submit additional information from their Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, as well as their Injury and Illness Incident Report. [ more ]

When you're working in the heat, safety comes first. With the OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool, you have vital safety information available whenever and wherever you need it - right on your mobile phone.

The App allows workers and supervisors to calculate the heat index for their worksite, and, based on the heat index, displays a risk level to outdoor workers. Then, with a simple "click," you can get reminders about the protective measures that should be taken at that risk level to protect workers from heat-related illness-reminders about drinking enough fluids, scheduling rest breaks, planning for and knowing what to do in an emergency, adjusting work operations, gradually building up the workload for new workers, training on heat illness signs and symptoms, and monitoring each other for signs and symptoms of heat-related illness. [ more ]

BOSTON – A recent settlement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a battery manufacturing company in E. Greenwich, Rhode Island means the facility is now handling and storing hazardous wastes in accordance with federal and state law outlining the safe handling requirements for hazardous waste. The company also agreed to pay a settlement penalty of $108,810. [ more ]

TARRYTOWN, NY – A Nanuet roofing and siding contractor with a significant history of safety violations and penalties now faces an additional $1,343,363 in penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated another fatal fall by a company employee, the second in three years.

OSHA opened an inspection of ALJ Home Improvement Inc. on Feb. 8, 2022, when a worker fell from the roof of a three-story residential construction project in Spring Valley. In February 2019, another company employee died in a fall at a Kiamesha Lake work site.

The agency determined that ALJ failed to provide fall protection training or ensure effective fall protection safeguards were used. They also failed to provide eye protection for employees using pneumatic nail guns, exposing them to the risk of serious eye injuries. [ more ]

About 65% of US workers surveyed say they suffer from significant or somewhat significant stress caused by work. 54% of workers report that they bring that stress home with them and it affects their personal life.

In order to help both workers and employers deal with this, OSHA has launched a workplace stress website with resources that can help reduce the level of stress in the workplace. [ more ]

CHARLOTTE — Three construction workers died after falling 70 feet from collapsed scaffolding in Dilworth, Charlotte Fire confirmed.

It happened just after 9 a.m. Monday at a construction site on East Morehead Street, near Euclid Avenue, firefighters said. [ more ]

BIRMINGHAM, AL – An Alabama plastics manufacturing company has pleaded guilty to a willful violation of workplace safety requirements as part of an agreement filed in federal court spurred initially by a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into a 45-year-old worker's death in Helena in August 2017.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Alabama prosecuted the case.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, the agreement also requires ABC Polymer Industries LLC to pay $242,928 in restitution plus funeral expenses to the fallen worker's estate. The company must also pay $167,928 in penalties and serve two years of probation, with terms including participating in an enhanced compliance and auditing program. In 2018, the company paid $155,338 in penalties assessed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration after its investigation into the incident. [ more ]

Police have charged an equipment operator and a construction company owner in connection with a fatal trench collapse at a Vernon construction site in 2022 that killed a 56-year-old husband and father of three.

Dennis Slater, who worked for Botticello Inc., died after a 25-foot wall of soil surrounding a trench he was laying pipe in collapsed on him, burying him in soil on the afternoon of July 22, 2022, according to court and Vernon Police Department records.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration this year fined the Manchester contractor for failing to follow safety rules that could have prevented a trench collapse. The workplace safety agency said the contractor, Botticello Inc., had been warned about what inspectors called four serious trench safety violations on an earlier job in Stafford. Botticello Inc. faced $375,000 in OSHA fines, the agency said.

Slater's colleagues tried to dig him out using their hands and an excavator, but Slater was unconscious and taking shallow breaths by the time other construction workers freed his upper body from the soil and began CPR, according to police records. [ more ]

GREENWOOD, MS – Had federal workplace safety regulations been followed at a LeFlore County soybean farm, a South African teenager employed by its operator would have returned home and not suffocated inside a grain bin in October 2022.

After the 19-year-old, two co-workers and their supervisor climbed into a storage bin to unclog it, the soybeans inside shifted, trapping and then engulfing them in seconds. When emergency responders arrived, they cut a hole in the storage bin's side to free the workers but needed five hours to recover the deceased worker.

Three of the workers involved in the incident were South African citizens, brought to work in LeFlore County under the H-2A temporary agricultural workers visa program.

Inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that Bare Bones Farms in Greenwood willfully violated federal law by failing to ensure that the employees wore full body harnesses connected to a lifeline while inside the soybean bin, which exposed them to deadly engulfment hazards. [ more ]

NEW YORK - On April 26, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a training session in Mayaguez for people who conduct inspections of construction sites in Puerto Rico. These inspectors must ensure that construction projects have proper coverage from an EPA general permit and take certain steps to protect local waters. EPA recently released the Spanish language version of its Construction Inspection Training Course for operators. Construction site operators are required to get coverage under EPA's Clean Water Act (CWA) 2022 Construction General Permit (CGP) and are now required to ensure that any individual conducting construction site inspections is properly qualified. This means they must receive specific training and pass an exam. [ more ]

ORLANDO, FL – A Florida-based entertainment company could have prevented a deadly fire and explosion at an Orlando warehouse in December 2022 in which four employees perished and a fifth was left hospitalized for months with near-fatal injuries, a federal workplace safety investigation has found.

Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that, as a team of workers employed by Magic in the Sky Florida LLC readied fireworks for a local show, an ignition sparked a fire and explosions in the storage facility. The five employees, who ranged in age from 22 to 27 years old, quickly found themselves trapped.

Following its investigation, OSHA found the company failed to protect its employees by following established safety protocols and issued citations for 10 serious violations. Specifically, the agency determined Magic in the Sky failed to do the following:

Ensure proper storage of explosive materials used in commercial fireworks displays.
Comply with OSHA's process safety management standard for preventing or minimizing the unplanned ignition of explosive materials, by performing a hazard analysis, and developing and implementing written process safety procedures and an emergency action plan.
Ensure electrical equipment in the work area was designed and classified for use in hazardous locations and could not serve as an ignition source.
Develop a hazard communication program and maintain safety data sheets. [ more ]

EPA sets user fees based on the manifest usage and processing costs for each manifest type in accordance with its user fee calculation methodology in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations parts 264/265 subpart FF. EPA consulted with the e-Manifest Advisory Board on the FY 2024 and 2025 user fees during the February 28 - March 1, 2023 e-Manifest Advisory Board meeting entitled "Meeting the Needs of the User Community: e-Manifest Program Priorities and User Fees for FY 2024/FY 2025." Based on the Advisory Board's feedback, EPA pivoted to the highly differentiated fee formula for this user fee cycle.

[View the fee schedule]

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a final rule that will require certain employers in designated high-hazard industries to electronically submit injury and illness information – that they are already required to keep – to the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The final rule takes effect on Jan. 1, 2024, and now includes the following submission requirements:

Establishments with 100 or more employees in certain high-hazard industries must electronically submit information from their Form 300-Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and Form 301-Injury and Illness Incident Report to OSHA once a year. These submissions are in addition to submission of Form 300A-Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.

To improve data quality, establishments are required to include their legal company name when making electronic submissions to OSHA from their injury and illness records. [ more ]

ECLECTIC, AL ‒ The Texas-based operator of an Eclectic manufacturing facility could have prevented a 20-year-old worker from suffering an amputation if the employer had followed required federal safety standards, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation determined.

After Madix Inc. reported a March 23, 2023, employee injury, investigators with the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that, as the worker tried to adjust a coolant feed line on a tube saw, his glove became caught, and his hand was pulled into the saw's spinning blade. The worker then suffered the amputation of three fingers. [ more ]

BRECKENRIDGE, CO – The owner of an Avon construction company whose failure to follow required federal safety standards led to the 2021 trench collapse death of a 23-year-old employee in Breckenridge now awaits a November sentencing date after pleading guilty to manslaughter on Aug. 3, 2023.

The plea follows a criminal referral by the U.S. Department of Labor after Peter Dillon and his now defunct company, A4S LLC refused to require the use of proper safety equipment to protect his workers. The refusal contributed to a trench collapse in which a company employee, Marlon Diaz, suffered fatal injuries as he installed a residential sewer line.

After an investigation of the incident by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, A4S LLC received three willful citations in May 2022 for not ensuring the excavation was inspected by a competent person, failing to instruct employees on the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and not having a trench protective system in place. OSHA also issued the company a serious citation for not having a safe means of exit within 25 lateral feet of employees working in a trench. [ more ]

BARTLETT, IL – For the third time in five years, federal investigators have found a nationwide provider of ready-made pasta, sauces and meals failed to follow workplace safety requirements to prevent workers from coming into contact with moving machine parts.

Inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigating a report by Rana Meal Solutions LLC that an employee suffered a finger amputation determined the incident occurred on a hot pasta sauce line at the company's Barlett manufacturing facility. At the time, the employee was trying to find a piece of a broken ball valve lodged in the system.

"Once again, our inspectors found Rana Meal Solutions LLC ignoring federal safety requirements to make sure dangerous machines are guarded or fully de-energized before they are maintained or serviced," explained OSHA Area Director Jacob Scott in Naperville, Illinois. "In 2019 and 2020, OSHA found the company exposed employees to the risk of severe injuries and now, in 2023, their failure to follow industry and federal safety standards led one worker to suffer a painful, disfiguring injury." [ more ]

LENEXA, KAN. (NOV. 9, 2023) – SA Recycling LLC of St. Louis, Missouri, will pay $68,000 in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the company failed to adequately control stormwater runoff from its scrap metal recycling and processing facility. EPA says that these failures could result in illegal discharges of pollution into the Mississippi River.

"Uncontrolled runoff from industrial facilities not only harms streams and rivers, but it also limits the public's use and enjoyment of those waters," said David Cozad, director of EPA Region 7's Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division. "This settlement demonstrates EPA's commitment to protecting vital watersheds, especially in areas overburdened by pollution, and creating a level playing field with businesses who are complying with the law." [ more ]

PATERSON, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a New Jersey contractor for again exposing workers to fall hazards, this time while working at a construction site in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

OSHA initiated an inspection of Adrian Construction Group LLC in July 2023 under a local emphasis program for falls in construction. The agency issued six willful violations for lack of fall protection and failure to ensure the use of eye protection and four serious violations for unsafe scaffolds and failure to provide hard hats for overhead hazards. The company faces a proposed penalty of $1,017,248 for these violations. [ more ]

ENEXA, KAN. (FEB. 12, 2024) – Owens Corning Insulating Systems LLC will pay $115,302 in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Kansas hazardous waste management regulations.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the company generates hazardous wastes at its fiberglass insulation facility in Kansas City, Kansas. During an EPA inspection in October 2022, the Agency determined that the company failed to comply with regulations intended to prevent releases of hazardous waste, including:

Failure to conduct and document determinations of hazardous waste at the facility.
Failure to notify the state when it generates new hazardous wastes.
Operating as a hazardous waste treatment, storage, and/or disposal facility without obtaining a required permit.
Failure to properly manage certain wastes at the facility. [ more ]

Each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports falls from elevation as the leading cause of construction worker fatalities, affirming the importance of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's continued commitment to raising awareness of this deadly hazard and how the industry can protect the safety and health of workers from death and serious injuries caused by falls.

OSHA's year-long commitment includes recognition of the agency's 11th National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction from May 6-10. This annual event during which OSHA will partner with Construction Safety Week, an organization comprising more than 40 national and global construction firms, aims to encourage employers nationwide to pause construction activities on May 8 to discuss how to work safely at elevation and create the largest-ever, industry-wide construction stand-down. [ more ]

LENEXA, KAN. (MARCH 28, 2024) – Scrap Management LLC, doing business as Rivers Edge Scrap Management of Kansas City, Kansas, will pay $144,500 in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the company failed to adequately control stormwater runoff from its scrap metal recycling and processing facility. EPA says that these failures could result in illegal discharges of pollution into the Kansas River.

"Uncontrolled runoff from scrap yards harms streams and rivers and limits the public's use and enjoyment of those waters," said David Cozad, director of EPA Region 7's Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division. "This settlement demonstrates EPA's commitment to protecting vital watersheds in urban communities, especially in areas overburdened by pollution. [ more ]

HATTIESBURG, MS – The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement agreement with a Hattiesburg poultry processing plant that requires the company to pay $164,814 in fines and implement enhanced safety measures to protect their employees from well-known machine hazards.

The agreement follows an investigation by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration into the failure by Mar-Jac Poultry to use required safety procedures that would have kept a teenaged worker from being fatally caught in a machine as they cleaned it in July 2023. [ more ]

Over 1,600 gallons of firefighting foam containing hazardous PFAS "forever chemicals" spilled in Brunswick, Maine early Monday morning after a fire suppression system malfunctioned at the former Brunswick Naval Air Base.

The foam was discharged in a hangar at what's now the Brunswick Executive Airport before entering the sewer and storm water systems. The firefighting foam, AFFF, contains PFAS chemicals that smother jet fuel fires. [ more ]

TEMPLE, TX – Federal workplace safety investigators have determined that a Temple manufacturer and designer of school furnishings could have prevented an employee's serious and permanent hand and arm injuries by installing required machine guards.

Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned that in April 2024, while using a garden hose to clean machine rollers at Artco-Bell Corp., the hose became caught in the rollers, pulling the worker's arm into the machine and leading to the worker injury.

In addition to failing to ensure the use of machine guards, OSHA inspectors found the company exposed workers to respirable crystalline silica hazards. The agency issued citations for 24 serious safety and health violations and assessed $257,183 in proposed penalties. [ more ]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that U.S. Army Garrison Fort Wainwright will pay $233,300 for violating federal hazardous waste management requirements.

During a routine inspection of the garrison in August 2021 EPA inspectors found several violations of the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act including failure to make a hazardous waste determination, storage of hazardous waste without a permit, failure to properly manage pharmaceutical waste, failure to properly manage used oil, and failure to properly manage universal waste such as aerosol cans and lamps.

At the time of the inspection, EPA determined the facility was operating as an unpermitted hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facility. Several hazardous wastes were stored improperly and containers were left open or were stored on-site longer than allowed. [ more ]

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong announced today a series of penalties and payments totaling $350,000 to be paid by Soundview Transportation following the November 2022 oil tanker accident in Norfolk, resulting in the largest gasoline spill in Connecticut history. In addition to the penalties, Soundview is fully responsible for the ongoing remediation and clean-up of the site, costing millions of dollars.

Today's settlement also addresses two smaller spills, one in Milford on March 16, 2023 and the other at the Gateway Montville terminal on September 13, 2023. Both of those spills have been remediated.

"Soundview's tanker accident resulted in the largest oil spill in Connecticut history—with severe disruption to neighbors and significant environmental harm. Soundview has taken responsibility for the ongoing remediation, and the state continues to closely monitor that work. Today's $350,000 settlement, including a substantial penalty, sends a clear message that those who violate our environmental laws will be held accountable," said Attorney General Tong. [ more ]