Bettendorf company pays $50K for oil leak

Sivyer Steel Corporation of Bettendorf has agreed to pay a $54,786 penalty and clean up residual used oil that may have leaked from its storage tanks as part of settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

According to an administrative consent agreement filed by the EPA in Kansas City, Kan., an inspection at Sivyer Steel in March 2010 found several violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which regulates the storage, treatment, transportation and disposal of hazardous waste. Inspectors cited the company, which produces and finishes steel castings, for operating without proper permits and failures to comply with hazardous waste generator, used oil and universal waste requirements.

As part of the settlement, the company must act within 30 days to demonstrate that its used oil containers and universal waste lamp containers are properly maintain and labeled, and show that all areas of its facility contaminated by leaks of used oil have been cleaned up. Sivyer Steel must also notify the EPA of the existence of any additional area at its facility that may be contaminated by leaked used oil, and take appropriate action to address them.

Last summer the company struck an agreement with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to remove over a four-year period a large pile of used foundry sand at its facility along the Mississippi River. The sand is used in molds to make castings, being contaminated in the process, and was in violation of state regulations that prohibited more than a six-month supply to be stored. In moving the sand to other property, the company also agreed to create a 5-foot buffer of uncontaminated dirt between the sand and groundwater.