FAIRBANKS -- Flint Hills Resources agreed to pay an $80,000 civil penalty for mishandling groundwater filters in a case that led to two trash-bin fires at its North Pole refinery in 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
The EPA said refinery personnel improperly disposed of pre-filters containing iron sulfide in a container that caused two fires that had to be extinguished by the North Pole Fire Department last year on June 19. It was part of the work connected with the ongoing sulfolane cleanup at the site.
"In this case, two completely avoidable dumpster fires occurred because the facility's hazardous waste was not properly identified and managed," Scott Downey, manager of the air and hazardous waste unit in Seattle, said in a written statement. "Worker and responder safety can be jeopardized when ignitable and reactive wastes are not managed and stored in strict accordance with the law."
The EPA said the groundwater pre-filters should have been treated as if they could catch on fire, which they did.
A spokesman for Flint Hills said the company reported the issue to the EPA, disposed of the filters correctly after making the report and cooperated with EPA in reaching the settlement.
Flint Hills closed the refinery last spring, citing the expense of a groundwater cleanup effort involving a plume of sulfolane that stretches for miles, and the high cost of North Slope crude oil. It now operates a terminal facility at the site for petroleum products shipped in from other refineries.