Oregon Fines Aerospace Company $70K for Waste Mishandling

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has fined a manufacturer of parts for the aerospace industry near Albany more than $70,000 for citations related to its mishandling of hazardous waste materials.

A Selmet company spokesman did not return an email seeking comment, The Albany Democrat-Herald reported.

An agency letter says Selmet was penalized for failing to determine if wastes generated at the titanium parts manufacturing facility were hazardous on two occasions. Selmet was also cited but not fined for 12 violations of hazardous waste, used oil and universal waste management regulations.

Other violations included transporting totes of waste fixer solution, weighing more than 25,000 pounds in one instance, to a disposal site in Washington as a non-hazardous material, state officials said. Selmet also failed to designate the waste as hazardous on its hazardous waste manifest, according to officials.

State officials noted that Selmet has significantly expanded production and the facility footprint since the agency’s last inspection in 2016, but has also decreased resources to the environmental health and safety department.

The state agency has labeled the company a “significant noncomplier,” because it reportedly has “not completed all the requested corrective actions” based on a pre-enforcement notice filed with the company in September.

The company was commended for its efforts to address the majority of the violations, and the state said it considered those efforts when determining the amount of the civil penalty.

Selmet has 20 days to appeal.

In February, Selmet was fined $27,500 by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration for an August titanium furnace explosion in which two employees were hurt.

Selmet employs more than 800 people and is owned by Consolidated Precision Products, with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.

Topics Oregon Aerospace