04.01.15
Avon, Mass.-based Ranfac Corporation, a medical device manufacturer, was fined by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection after a recent inspection unveiled several hazardous waste management violations and one air quality violation.
“Inspections and penalties like this should serve as a wake-up call to tighten up the operation and oversight so that henceforth, the company will move forward consistently focused on core environmental compliance practices,” said Phil Weinberg, director of Department of Environmental Protection’s Southeast Regional Office in Lakeville.
The department added that the Ranfac Corporation has worked promptly to bring the facility back into compliance with the regulations.
Among the violations was the use of a water evaporator involving an electrolyte solution that was later determined to be hazardous wastewater. The use of the evaporator constituted the treatment of hazardous waste, which the facility was neither licensed nor permitted to conduct.
Ranfac immediately began to ship the waste off-site for proper management, department officials said.
Other violations included issues of labeling, storage, signage, improper delineation of a hazardous waste accumulation area, posting of applicable emergency response information, and ensuring that training protocols for applicable employees had been carried out.
The department said that Ranfac has corrected those violations.
The air quality violation concerned the failure to maintain monthly raw material usage and air emission data pertaining to volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants. Ranfac submitted the emissions data within 60 days of the inspection.
Ranfac makes a range of medical products including several bone marrow diagnostic and aspiration devices.
“Inspections and penalties like this should serve as a wake-up call to tighten up the operation and oversight so that henceforth, the company will move forward consistently focused on core environmental compliance practices,” said Phil Weinberg, director of Department of Environmental Protection’s Southeast Regional Office in Lakeville.
The department added that the Ranfac Corporation has worked promptly to bring the facility back into compliance with the regulations.
Among the violations was the use of a water evaporator involving an electrolyte solution that was later determined to be hazardous wastewater. The use of the evaporator constituted the treatment of hazardous waste, which the facility was neither licensed nor permitted to conduct.
Ranfac immediately began to ship the waste off-site for proper management, department officials said.
Other violations included issues of labeling, storage, signage, improper delineation of a hazardous waste accumulation area, posting of applicable emergency response information, and ensuring that training protocols for applicable employees had been carried out.
The department said that Ranfac has corrected those violations.
The air quality violation concerned the failure to maintain monthly raw material usage and air emission data pertaining to volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants. Ranfac submitted the emissions data within 60 days of the inspection.
Ranfac makes a range of medical products including several bone marrow diagnostic and aspiration devices.